Star Fox Cerinia Chronicles
by Stainless Steel Fox
Summary: Because a hero deserves a second chance, and a planet shouldn't have to die for the sake of an instruction booklet. Divergence set just before Starfox Command, wherein Fox McCloud finds a new purpose, and new challenges, on an ancient planet. Chapter 15!
1. Hero for Hire Slightly Foxed

**Star Fox – Cerinia Chronicles**

Written because a hero deserves a second chance, and a world deserves not to die for the sake of an instruction booklet.

**Mission 1 – Hero for hire (slightly foxed)**

Fox McCloud drifted his Arwing II towards the massive bulk of the Beltino Orbital Gate, or rather the space station that generated it, and housed Corneria's main R&D complex. All instruments read nominal, a text-book orbital transfer manoeuvre. Space all around was illuminated by the energy trails of other ships, and in the distance the gate itself was open, a wash of emerald green. A convoy of freighters were entering with a watchful cruiser seemingly herding them along, it's IFF beacon shining on his ship's scanners.

It seemed impossible that less than two years ago, this place had been the scene of a desperate battle with the Aparoids. But the Lylat system had recovered quickly from the effects of the invasion, and gone on to greater things. As he swung round and lined up on the station himself, the holo-interface opened up a floating display window with a ping. It showed the red and blue hatching of an incoming contact, and an identifying text bar. He tapped the box to accept it.

"Incoming craft on vector nine four, this is Beltino Gate Space Traffic Control. Please identify craft and destination." The speaker was a sharp muzzled collie girl, quite good looking in a starched, neat edged sort of way. Her voice was calm and controlled, but her eyes widened towards the end as she took in exactly who was on her line.

"Beltino Gate STC, this is Star Fox 1, bound for Corneria R&D facility. My authorisation code is Alpha Echo three five." Fox stated. "Please advise course and heading."

The hound girl's professional detachment slipped. "Uh, yes sir… code confirmed, please switch your navigation beam to channel 19, that's one, niner. Come about to 23 mark 127. You have a clear run in on docking bay 12."

"Thanks, and could you let Professor Beltino know I'm coming?" He flashed her a smile, and she blushed slightly.

"I'll see to it, Captain McCloud… and you're welcome!" The comm line ended and as her face disappeared, so did Fox's smile. Since their defeat of the Aparoid queen, Team Star Fox, and most especially Fox McCloud, had cemented their reputation as honest to gosh heroes. Unfortunately, the team in question no longer existed.

Falco had been unhappy with escort work and bored with hunting down two bit pirates, and had left once again. Peppy Hare had taken over General Pepper's job, and even Slippy, Fox's buddy since they were together at Corneria Flight Academy, was no longer aboard. He had met up with a girl named Amanda during an engineering symposium and ended up spending more and more time with her. He'd eventually left to live with her on Aquas, working for a defence contractor.

But most of all, Krystal… he'd wanted to protect her, keep her safe, and as a result made the biggest mistake of his life. To say she'd reacted badly to his intention to take her off flight duty was like saying Solar was 'a bit warm'. He still remembered the end of that final conversation, where he'd tried to explain. Heck, he'd never been able to forget it.

'Please Krystal, I'm just trying to protect you. I… care about you, and I don't want to see you get hurt.' Even after all they'd been through together, he still couldn't say what he really wanted to. He even kept a tight grip on his feelings against her sensing what he felt, and not returning it.

The azure vixen had stared him right in the eyes, her voice lacking it's usual warmth. 'I can take care of myself, Fox. Protecting others has always been what I wanted to do, and as a part of Star Fox I have the chance to make a difference! If I choose to put my life on the line to do so, that's _my_ decision!'

He'd shaken his head, trying to think of a way to stall her. 'No, as leader of Star Fox, it's mine!'

She'd just glared at him, then run off the bridge, blue tail streaming behind her. Well, he'd gotten her off the team alright, off the team, off the Great Fox II and out of his life, and he'd been unable to find where she'd gone.

Now he wandered the Lylat system with ROB 64 and the Great Fox II, doing jobs as they came, taking it one day at a time and all the while keeping up the public face of the great Fox McCloud he was expected to be, and every day felt less like. Heck of an epitaph for a hero.

He'd lined up on the beam, and guided his ship in on mental auto-pilot, and now the fighter was passing through the atmosphere screen into the brightly lit bay with a large number 12 on the floor. A fennec fox with a pair of illuminated batons waved him over to a fighter sized landing area on the far side of the bay.

A familiar, bespectacled figure was walking up, escorted by a gaggle of bay techies. As the fighter's systems shut down, Fox popped the canopy and climbed down over the side. Once he'd have jumped down, but somehow he didn't feel like it any more.

The elderly toad held out a webbed hand. "Fox! Good to see you again!"

The vulpine pilot took the proffered hand and shook. "You too… It's been some time. So, you said on the comm you had a job that needed my skills?"

The toad nodded eagerly enough that his glasses went askew. As he adjusted them, he replied, "Indeed, indeed! Come with me to my office, and I'll fill you in on the details."

Fox walked with Beltino to a bay hatch, and into an open transit tube where a transfer platform waited. As they were whisked along, Fox asked, "So, heard anything from Slippy lately?"

"Oh, yes, I talked to him not a week ago. His work is going well, dark matter extinction events… it actually ties into my own latest project…" He looked around with an exaggerated sense of caution. "… But that can wait until we reach my office. What else, oh, he and Amanda are getting on like a house underwater, even thinking of moving into a place together…"

Anyone a mite more perceptive than Beltino would have stopped at the tight lipped expression that crossed Fox's face, or the way his tail tip twitched. But unfortunately, he wasn't.

"You know, I'm surprised he hasn't told you this himself. I know how close you two are."

Fox had the urge to respond, 'Not any more!', but he suppressed it. After all, it wasn't the fault of this kindly, if more than slightly dotty old professor that it hurt. It was his own fault for picking at barely healed scar tissue.

Instead he commented, "Well, what with my moving around, I'm only occasionally in range of a relay node, and if Slippy's saving for a house, I can understand him not wanting to lay down the cash for a direct hyper-com beam. Especially from Aquas."

It wasn't an answer, a recorded datagram would have stored and forwarded to the Great Fox II when he was in range of a relay. But it seemed to satisfy the professor, who's mind was on clearly on other things, anyway.

When they'd entered the office, and the door had sealed, Beltino moved over to a display table and punched several icons that hovered proud of the surface. The professor nodded approvingly at the resultant displays that were presumably polarised only in the professor's direction, because Fox could see nothing.

"Good, we can talk safely now." The room darkened slightly, and a detailed holo-projection appeared over the table. It was some sort of roughly cylindrical device, but without reference points Fox honestly couldn't tell if it was a micro-component or a space station.

Beltino beamed. "My latest creation! The Beltino micro-gate generator…" Seeing Fox's head pivot slightly to one side with a quizzical expression, he added. "Basically, it's a self contained version of my orbital gate generator. It could be carried by a ship as small as a space fighter, and provide it with a transport gate to anywhere in the galaxy."

Despite himself, Fox was impressed. Transfer technology allowed you to transport things short range, say between a planet and orbit, but for space travel you were stuck with certain options. Even with G-Diffusers and dark matter reactor drives, it took several Cornerian Standard (CS) hours to travel a single Cornerian Orbital Radius, the mean distance between Corneria and Solar.

Hyper-drives allowed you to go the same distance in a fraction of a second, but they were also expensive to buy and maintain. They also had high power consumption and were themselves more massive than any fighter, or indeed most shuttle craft, so they could only be mounted on a capital ship. Part of the reason there was work for mercenaries was the fact that most in-system freighters found it more cost effective to travel through normal space and hire escorts than mount one.

However, for longer ranges, hyper-drives had until recently been the only way to fly. Beta, the binary companion star that Sauria orbited, was maybe 500 COR away on average. Most military grade hyper-drives, clocking about a kilo-light (1000 times light speed) could make that distance in under a minute. By comparison, the nearest stars were maybe 1000 times as distant, and could be reached in just over a day.

Now the Beltino Gate had changed all the rules. It could send you anywhere it was targeted to, however distant, and with zero travel time. Up until now, Fox had always assumed that needing a machine the size of a large space station was part of the requirements, but it appeared not. Having that capability on a fighter would prove a massive strategic advantage.

"Now that _is_ amazing, professor." Fox said, without any reservations. "But surely the Cornerian Defence Force has test-pilots who'd bob their tails and shave off half their fur to get a shot at testing this…"

"Oh no! It's not for test, not yet, not with a piloted ship anyway. Your job is simply to transport it to the test base in Sector X, where it will be fitted to the test craft."

"Uh… I hate to tell you this, but my new Arwing doesn't have a cargo compartment." Maybe the Professor had heard from Slippy about the modifications his old ship had back during the Sauria mission.

"Oh, I know, I know." Beltino nodded, and tapped a few hovering buttons. The device became enclosed in a wire frame aero-shell, which opaqued and slotted in on an external hard-point on the underbelly of a wire frame Arwing II. Measurements popped up. The package massed about 8 standard tons, and was three standard metres long by one wide, a quarter as long as the Arwing.

It wasn't exactly lightweight, but Fox could compensate with proper adjustment of the G-Diffusers, and running his drive slightly hot. It would prevent him carrying or picking up missiles. However, since he'd be running this mission without the Great Fox, there'd be no-one to re-supply him anyway.

The toad scientist continued. "It can be easily fitted under your Arwing's ventral hull, and it has an auto-jettison system if needs must."

Fox's ears pricked up. "And why would that be?" he asked, cautiously.

"Well, the only way to get the necessary energy density was to use hyper-dense meta-stable plasma…"

"Like a Nova Bomb?" Fox exclaimed. There was a reason you picked them up in space rather than carrying them on your fighter. Once unpacked from their bulky confinement modules, the things were nastily unstable, and the less time you were next to one, the better.

The professor shook his head, almost losing his glasses again. "Not in the least. It has an energy release capacity of 15 times a standard Nova bomb. But it's alright, the system is in a confinement module which is designed to hold it indefinitely, and it takes a massive charge of energy applied in exactly the right way to trigger gate creation. It's guidance programming isn't even formatted."

"So you have the quick release because…"

The elderly toad looked surprisingly stern for a moment, staring at the taller male over his glasses. "We've covered every possibility we can think of. That should hopefully cover the unforeseen ones."

Fox nodded. "Nice to know. But I'd have expected something this high priority to go through the Gate, or be transported by a battle-group."

The toad shook his head. "Passing it through the Gate would destabilise it. And this entire project is top secret. Besides, a dummy convoy _is_ travelling to the test base, and according to the records, you're just here to pick up some equipment my nephew built. In normal space, your Arwing is the best option. Even the Great Fox II would attract too much attention."

"Hmm. Sounds like a Peppy plan." Fox stated. The professor might fly up to, or rather, swim down to depths of thought no other creature could, but when it came to the real world, he was sometimes reduced to a doggy paddle. This scheme was too sneaky for him. And that meant 'General' Peppy probably originated it. The old hare had been Star Fox's tactical co-ordinator for a reason.

Beltino's reaction showed he'd struck gold. Fox continued, "Thought so. Any reason beyond normal caution for the bait and switch?"

"Well…" The scientist was clearly ill at ease. "Details of the project may possibly have leaked, and you can imagine what something like this could do in the wrong hands. But security is as tight as possible, so there should be no way for them to find out about your flight."

"Should? So to sum up, I'm to carry an experimental device with the damage potential of a planetary bombardment missile across the system, strapped to my hull, possibly having to fight hordes of pirates as I go?"

Beltino seemed to sag slightly. "You won't do it?"

"I never said that, I just wanted to make sure I had all the details first." He grinned, but felt less easy than he'd expected. The old boy was a decent guy, and didn't deserve to be baited. He tried to move to a more business-like tone. "So, give me the details."

Kitty Hawk base was deep in the nebula, protected by isolation and it's own defences. The fee was high, enough to run the Great Fox II for a long time, and the job sounded risky enough to be interesting. Falco wasn't the only one bored of escort duty. Beltino shut off the security screen and made the arrangements with the bay foreman. By the time they returned the pod was almost fixed in place.

Fox stopped for a second, looking it over. As the professor had said, it was amazingly compact, only half again as long as he was tall, and nestling in between the lower G-Diffusers with decimetres between the lower edge and the ground. As the pair approached, the techies looked up from what they were doing, clearly surprised. One tiger-striped feline techie jerked up, looking panicked, and nearly dropped his spanner into the G-Diffuser.

"Woah, be careful! I've gotta fly that." Fox exclaimed, mock seriously. The poor techie looked so worried that Fox took pity. "Hey, it's okay! No harm done."

As soon as the head tech gave clearance, he scrambled into his cockpit, and prepped for take-off. Signalling traffic control, he dusted off with a casual salute to Beltino and the tech types who were still around. He contacted Rob and told him to meet the Arwing off Sector X after the delivery. His dark matter reactor mass was topped up, so he could do about 5 COR point to point under power, and this flight was well within that.

A simple point to point in space was something he could do in his sleep. In fact, once he was clear of Corneria orbital space, he did just that, trusting to his Slippy upgraded sensors to warn him of anything significant within a ten thousand standard kilometres, long before his mark 1 eyeballs would spot anything. He set the alarm to wake him an hour before reaching Sector X. He definitely wanted to be alert when he had to navigate the energy fields that pervaded the region.

But he didn't drift off immediately. Long normal-space patrols gave you time to think, even when you didn't want to. What was with him lately? He should feel proud when he saw the activity around the Gate, after all he was responsible for it still being there. And flirting with that Collie flight controller, using his fame to get special treatment, had he really sunk that low?

Well, it wasn't just that, talking, really talking to girls had always been one of his worst skills, which was one of the reasons he used his 'hero' persona. The great Fox McCloud could airily dismiss the nervousness the real Fox McCloud always felt, by not really allowing a conversation to go anywhere.

Krystal had been the first to beak through that reserve since Miyu, a fellow student at the Flight Academy. A tomboyish lynx, enthusiastic and outgoing, she'd originally come to him for assistance on Tactical Theory, but had stuck with him. The lynx and her spaniel friend, Fay, had formed a social group with Fox and Slippy, and had managed to get the overly focussed young fox to stop and smell the roses occasionally.

He'd had to leave to restart Star Fox under Peppy's tutelage, and Slippy had loyally followed him, despite Fox's protests that he shouldn't wreck his career. He had at least managed to convince Miyu to stay her course. She'd graduated and gone into a CDF squadron, but they'd kept in touch.

As Fox had slowly raised the reputation of Star Fox, it had seemed more and more likely that Miyu and Fay would join up after their tour of duty, and the close friendship between him and the lynx might become something more. Then Venom had attacked. Miyu's squadron had been on patrol near Macbeth. When the Venomian fleet had come in to take the manufacturing planet, they had fought a desperate battle against impossible odds.

Miyu's strategy had allowed them to punch a hole in the attackers to allow the evacuation transports to escape. Her skill and courage had won both her and Fay the Lylat Star, the military's highest honour, but posthumously. What made it worse was that just days before, Fox had chosen an escort mission for Climate Controller parts to Fichnia over one for luxury foods to Macbeth. The first was higher paying and higher prestige. If only he'd taken the other, he might have been there, might have prevented…

After that Fox had avoided anything that looked like a potential relationship. At least until a certain blue vixen had punched through his apathy. He'd been fascinated by her from the first instant he saw her, suspended in that crystal at the peak of the Krazoa palace. In the aftermath of the Saurian crisis, it had seemed only polite to offer her a place to stay, especially after some incautious questions had revealed she didn't _have_ a home-world to go back to, or any means to go elsewhere. That's what he'd told himself, at least.

Initially, Krystal had been a curious mix of technological innocent and sophisticate. Flying in the shuttle, or the Great Fox hadn't worried her, but she'd had to have light switches and wash-rooms explained. Oh yes, _that_ had been one of the more embarrassing moments of his life. Krystal had adapted quickly though, and certainly to things like long, hot showers and ultrasonic fur dryers. It had become a standing joke on the Great Fox that when you saw Krystal heading for the wash-room with a basket of bath supplies, you signalled Rob to reduce the main drives to half speed to free up energy capacity.

She'd seen them using the simulators to keep up their skills, and had asked to try them. Her dexterity and quick intelligence had rapidly made her a more than competent pilot, and it wasn't long before she joined the team formally. All the time Fox convinced himself that it was only good sense to have an expert pilot on the team who was also telepathic. From the start, she'd been grateful to Fox, not just for providing her with a place to stay, but for destroying Andross. It seemed she'd been seeking the one who'd destroyed her planet, and Andross's diseased mind was instantly recognisable. That was why she'd grabbed the staff and started blasting when the mad monkey reincarnated.

Living in such close quarters, he'd gotten to see many facets of her personality. She could be generous and warm hearted, but never soft where she spotted an injustice. Her calm demeanour and stern common sense had quickly quashed the occasional hazing contests between Slippy and Falco, at least while she was around. Determined and independent, she was still able to gracefully ask for assistance when she needed it. She took delight in finding out about the system she now lived in, and yet…

There had always been a reserve about her, an unwillingness to fully confide in anyone, even Fox, about her history before Sauria. She hid a deeply hurt part of herself away, and nothing Fox had been able to do could bring it out, to comfort and heal her. And as he'd grown to care about what he could see, he'd wanted more and more to be the one to break past that reserve, soothe those emotional scars. Still, he convinced himself that it was because they were close friends, and team mates.

He had wondered if they could be more, but he'd held back. At times it seemed Krystal's actions towards him were more than those of a close friend, but he'd worried he'd simply mistaken gratitude and comradeship far something more. And there were two other factors. Her initial medical scans had given her approximate age between 18 and 20. Fox was 28 at the time, not an impossible gap, but definitely a difference.

To a lesser extent, he was the commanding officer of the team, so a relationship would be improper. It mattered much less than in the regular army, but while discipline and the chain of command bound them much less tightly, it was still there. So even after the Aparoid invasion, when it became clearer and clearer how _he_ felt at least, he'd suppressed those feelings in her presence.

It had ultimately been those feelings, and the increasing worry about her safety, that had led to the eventual disaster. As the others had left, as they took more and more missions as a pair, and had several close escapes. He'd finally decided that the only way to avoid another Miyu was to take all future missions solo. So he'd asked to see her…

He fiercely told his meandering mind to shut up, before he re-cycled that last scene again. She probably hadn't thought of him as anything more than a friend, and flight leader, and besides, it was done. He should really stop moping and get over it, and the feeling that he'd been abandoned by all his friends. He hadn't exactly made it easy for them to keep in touch.

He should be _happy_ that Slippy had a job he loved, and a girl he loved even more, not envious. Knowing him, he was so deep in his work, he probably had to be reminded to sleep and eat, let alone send Fox a message. Likewise Peppy, the guy had taken a brash young flying cadet, and trained him up into a top pilot. He owed his mentor more than could ever be repaid, and he should be proud that the hare finally had a job worthy of his skills.

As for Falco, that bird was probably living it up somewhere, probably with Kat Munroe, and good luck to him. Even Krystal… She was safer as far away from him as possible. After all, he tended to end up in highly dangerous situations, and as bad as he felt, it would be nothing to how he'd feel if he ever heard her scream fade because her cockpit no longer held atmosphere.

He glanced at the compacted staff he carried in his cockpit as a keepsake and a reminder of better times. It had been one of the few things Krystal had been carrying in her Arwing when the original Great Fox crashed, and when she'd left the successor craft, she'd left it behind as well. Of course, without making trips to Sauria to recharge it, it was only an ornate paperweight.

He growled softly to himself. She'd broken with her past, started anew. Maybe he should do the same. He should be glad his legions of fans couldn't see the pitiable funk he'd ended up in. Next he'd be dying his fur black, and spouting bad poetry in dimly lit coffee shops on Zoness.

After he'd completed this mission, he'd do something about his situation. Use the money from this job to load up the Great Fox II with supplies and go interstellar. He'd helped create a solar system where he was no longer needed. Maybe out there he could find someone who did, find a challenge, and his sense of purpose… With a plan of action in mind, he finally dozed off.

**Authors Notes:** This first part was rather short on action, but don't worry, the next one will make up for it, I promise. This first part is set a few weeks before the Anglars make the scene, but diverges from the canon because I don't have much info on Command, and I don't want to make any more mistakes than I inevitably have already. And in case you're wondering about that dedication, in the intro text to Star Fox Adventures, it only says Krystal's parents were dead. In the instruction manual, it says she's the last survivor of her entire planet …

It appears Lylatians use the metric system, at least I saw specs for the Landmaster that looked like they came straight from the game, which used 'sm', which I translate as standard metres'. For nerds like myself, the COR is about 200 million kilometres, or 1.3 AU (Astronomical Units – the mean distance between Earth and the sun). This puts Corneria almost as far from Solar as Mars is from the Sun, but Solar must be a bright F type star to have such a wide habitable zone anyway, rather than our own suns weaker G2 type. Also, it's surface temperature is "over 9000!" and our own sun is around 6000 degrees kelvin. (If they're using metric measurements, kelvin is appropriate).


	2. Not a Bacon Tree

**Mission 2 – Not a bacon tree…**

He was woken out of his space pilot's doze by an alarm, but it was proximity, not time. His first thought was a false alarm caused by magnetic interference, since he was already nearing the massive nebula, and the magnetic currents were already fuzzing even his sensor systems.

However, his scanner showed a group of dots at extreme range. There were about 15, moving into a classic en-globing formation. This meant they were either a well trained team who'd practised the complex manoeuvre until it was second nature, or amateurs who thought it looked cool. He double checked the formation, noticing the rather ragged alignment. Amateurs!

"Got a bit eager, and sprang your trap early, boys?" he murmured to himself.

The nebula gave pretty good cover against normal sensors, especially deeper in. Even here, he'd be half blind without his amphibian ally's sensor upgrades. So there was an excellent chance they hadn't realised he'd spotted them, as few space-fighter sensor arrays had the range of his, especially the junk heaps they must be flying. Besides, Slippy had added some refinements to fool normal ECM gear, especially at long range, where the signal was weak. It would take several minutes for them to reach attack range.

Which begged the question, how they were homing in? His IFF beacon was set to passive authorised ping, so only military and civil defence units could use it, and a quick check showed it hadn't been interrogated since leaving Corneria orbit.

For that matter how they'd busted security in the first place… a nasty suspicion occurred, and his electronic warfare suite confirmed it. He was sending out a beacon, something external. That tiger type hadn't freaked because he'd dropped the spanner on the Arwing, he'd dropped the spanner because he'd freaked. Clearly, Fox had interrupted him in setting up… uh oh, what if there was more than a beacon?

The answer soon came, as his displays flickered and his thrust dropped. There was no shuddering or flash, so it wasn't explosives, but something had just made a major hit on his electronics. A disabler, maybe built into that beacon shell, pumping out tailored electromagnetic hash into his systems.

Fortunately the Arwing II was a top draw fighter, with a lot of redundant avionics capacity and an excellent damage control sub-system. A diagnostic holo-interface screen popped up to one side as it swiftly shunted non-essential programs to storage, re-routed control paths and freed up the remaining processing power for essential combat systems. The result was better than he'd feared, but worse than he'd hoped.

Basic lasers, and full normal thrust and G-Diffuser inertial compensation were available, and shields, manoeuvrability, sensors and inertial navigation were impaired but usable. Everything else, target management, boost, laser overcharging, comms, e-warfare, even damage control itself were now offline.

Life support was separate, though for the duration of the dogfight he could breath the cabin air if needed. So was the holo-recorder viewpoint that gave him a god's eye view from above and behind his hull, but that was because it fed directly to his black box data module as a legal recording. A flat screen direct feed required a minimal use of computer resources, and gave him a double check on things outside his cockpit view. All in all, he was likely still superior to his individual opponents, but the margin was a lot smaller than before.

He waited until they hit the edge of his impaired sensors, almost tactical range, before making his move. He pushed the drive up to the limits of the G-Diffuser system, adjusting the compensation factor with a practised paw, and headed for the nearest hole forward of him. Fluorescent gas made the enemies faded black dots on a psychedelic background.

The fighters, in visual range now, closed up to block the hole, just as he'd hoped, and spat laser bolts at him, which he could have done without. At least they couldn't use missiles, not if they wanted his cargo intact, but then, neither could he, even if he'd been packing. He barrel rolled instinctively as the streaks of heavy light flashed past his cockpit, and lined up on one of the perimeter fighters who'd been left all alone by the shift.

It was an 'ugly', an Invader II hull with what looked like pre-Venom Cornerian dog-fighter wings. But it's marque didn't matter since his lasers raked across it and quickly turned it to a cloud of debris. He flew through the expanding cloud, watching the flurry behind him as the other enemies scrambled to match vector and range on him.

He had a short head start, and now he was accelerating into the thicker part of the nebula, not a particularly safe activity. His degraded sensors indicated a cluster of asteroidal matter in his path, and he barely had time to compensate and weave through the flurry of rocks. He skimmed inverted across the surface of the largest, about the size of the Great Fox II, with the tips of his upper G-Diffusers only a ship length from the rock.

At least some of the pirates had boost, because half a dozen reappeared on his aft sensor array. Two of them didn't have sensors to match, because they vanished as they impacted the rocks he'd just passed. But the others gave chase.

"Persistent, aren't you?" He hauled back in the stick, and rose, hugging the surface of the asteroid. Then he cut engines, spun a 180 on manoeuvring systems alone, and floated, drifting up and back. He'd already made sure his vector wouldn't intercept a chunk of space junk. After all, the traditional hunter-huntee relationship said he should be running away. So they wouldn't expect him to be waiting for them.

His first blast evaporated the lead craft too quickly for him to identify it, but the next one was some sort of souped up space racer, which was duck soup for the waiting, fox flown fighter. Fox slammed his drive up to maximum, and boosted past the rock edge, forcing the following pair to veer off to avoid collision. One, a basic Invader I veered a fraction too much, and scraped an outcrop. This swung it round in a flat spin that smeared it across the asteroid surface.

Fox swept in and under the other one, a ex-Cornerian dog-fighter repainted in red with white go-faster-stripes and with additional strap on boosters. He looped up into it's belly before it's pilot even realised he was there. Realisation was permanently delayed by twin laser bolts rupturing the cockpit from below. Uncontrolled, it spiralled away to smash into a smaller rock and become a fancy firework.

Fox hadn't hung around to watch, looping up on full thrust to put the big rock between him and the remaining pursuers, who were just staring to navigate the asteroids. Hopefully, they'd figure on him trying an ambush again and approach cautiously. This would be fine by him, as he was now hauling tail away from the region as fast as his thrusters would carry him.

The asteroids dropped off his rear sensors, and he breathed a sigh of relief. Paradoxically he felt happier and more alive than he had in months. People trying to kill him and failing always had that effect. He didn't particularly want to find out what the alternative was like. A navigation beacon with the base's IFF was signalling up ahead, strong enough that it was detectable even to his impaired navigation system, and he headed towards it.

While he was fairly sure he could take the rest of the fighters, now their numbers were thinned, that wasn't his job. His first priority was to deliver the goods, and inform Professor Beltino that one of his cats was actually a rat. It was odd, he was still a few thousand skm short of the base's last known position, but he wasn't complaining. They'd have fighter cover and fixed turrets, certainly enough hardware to scare off a half-dozen…

A shape resolved itself out of a particularly dense swirl of iridescent gas, and he yelped with shock. It was a Cornerian Assault Carrier, but not the Great Fox II. A holographic flag waved at the mast head, a robot skull and mechanical claw crossbones. It had dorsal and ventral turrets, and launched a flight of four fighters, probably their entire operational reserve, as he approached.

The Arwing II barrel rolled and twisted to evade the turrets as they opened up, and weighed his options, none of them good. They'd used the charged nebula cleverly, letting him get very close before opening up on him. If he tried to bypass or make a run for it, the combination of point defence and fighters would almost certainly get him, especially since their more powerful capital ship sensors would be able to track him long after he'd lost their signal.

He had one chance. The old style of Cornerian Assault Carrier wasn't designed to go screen to screen in a battle, but hang back and attack with fighters. Toughness was sacrificed for capacity and speed, an 'eggshell with sledge hammers' Peppy had once called them.

Fox knew from trying to refit his own that there was a weak point in back of the hangar bay, a power conduit that led straight to the engine core. Hit that, even with regular lasers, and the whole thing would go up. As for getting out… well, he had some ideas. But that meant going head to head with a prepared pair of fighters with fire support, and no clever manoeuvres would stop him taking hits.

He dropped in on a leading vector on one of the pair, and almost got his tail fried by a turret beam that came too close. They swerved up to meet him, and it turned into a game of chicken, with added laser fire. He concentrated on one, peppering it with blasts, but this one had shields, and took several hits to die. He'd managed to adjust the run so during the critical part the nearest turret was screened by the other enemy fighter. However that gave the fighter, an Invader III with an extended nose, an almost clear track on his Arwing.

His shield flared once, twice, three times and dropped to below 50%, and then he was past, dipping below the turret's arc of fire and into the hangar bay. He was blasting as he did, shooting at the centre of the top edge, of the bay entrance. This was where the atmosphere screen power distribution module was. On full power, the screen turned into a force shield that protected the bay, so it needed to be removed.

The sudden explosion of gas, debris, and the bodies of a few unlucky pirate techs that blew out of the bay door indicated he'd speared it, but he didn't have time to congratulate himself. The evacuating air buffeted his ship as he entered the bay, but he decelerated, pulled in his wing-tips, and rolled sideways even as he pitched 'down' slightly facing towards a particular point on the rear end of the bay. The whole time he was raking it with laser fire, and a flash indicated he'd got the conduit. Now he had to bail…

Reverse pitching to go for the other side, he saw what he'd hoped for, dark matter storage tanks, the same as on the Great Fox II. The explosion as he destroyed them stripped most of the rest of his shields away, but also blew a big hole in the rear of the bay, big enough to fit his Arwing through with it's G-Diffusers retracted, which is just what he did. He flew out of the hole in a cloud of dispersing plasma, and pushed up his thrust to maximum again.

A satisfactory flare, which outshone even the nebula, indicated the carrier would no longer be a problem. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for the orphaned fighters still on his tail. They'd had to turn, and turn wide to avoid their exploding mother-ship. One hadn't been fast enough and was blind-sided by a chunk of hull. But as it spun off into space, the other two were dogging his tail, and peppering the sky around him with laser fire.

He triggered his IFF beacon on full active, with the distress sub-code, and since his shields were dead anyway, so he manually swapped out the shield management program for comms, dragging the icons across his holo-interface with quick fingertip movements. The holo-window cross-hashed as he tried to contact the base up ahead, and they quickly locked in on his emergency comm frequency, transmitted with the IFF.

A voice channel was the best it could do with the range and magnetic interference. "Mayday, Mayday." He kept veering and swerving randomly, even as he spoke, using the authorisation from his briefing to identify himself as friendly. "Kitty Hawk base, this is Star Fox 1, calling Kitty Hawk base. I am under attack! Authorisation code Tango Hotel X-Ray one one three eight."

"Kitty Hawk base, Star Fox 1. We are reading your distress signal. We are launching fighters to assist."

"I may not have much time, one of the techies who fitted the Gate module was a pirate stooge. He fingered me with a beacon and a disabler… I think it was a tiger striped feline, he acted suspicious. They jumped me on the edge of the nebula, 20 fighters and a command ship. I got about half of them and the cruiser, but I'm crippled and need support…"

Unknown to Fox, a laser bolt had scored the pod under his belly, opening it to space and letting the energised, if highly attenuated, nebula gases in. He dived through a particularly dense cloud mass, highly charged already, hoping it would spoof their sensors. He was already detecting the navigation beacon of the genuine base in the distance, and their far larger arrays must surely be able to detect him…

The laser bolts that scored additional lines of ions into the gases triggered a chain reaction. The unusual density of the gas cloud was due to it's self generated magnetic currents, and the energies it contained equalled a large bomb. The wake of the unshielded Arwing and the laser bolts created a flux tube, a gaseous lightning conductor that earthed the entire energy of the cloud into the unshielded pod.

Even as the base launched fighters, Fox heard a new alert, the auto eject for the Gate module, and groaned. He'd been so close… "The Gate module's ejecting! I can't…"

The ejection system worked, but not very well, damaged panels from the laser fire catching the Gate module and spinning it as the discharging plasma energies triggered it's Zephyr ring. The glowing green ring was projected from the end of the module, and encircled the Arwing. Energy exposure commenced as the hyper-dense plasma was fed into the ring, expanding the Gate lens and trapping the Arwing inside it.

With no program, the energies had nowhere to go, no vector to open in hyper-space, and they sought an alternate path. The residual magical energies of Krystal's staff provided that path, resonating with the hyper-dimensional vortex and interfacing with the only mind in range that could control it.

The shock of being caught in the Gate vortex had knocked him unconscious, but his sub-conscious was a ferment. Krystal… mistake… home… understanding… past… respect… hope… challenge… useful… needed… love… KRYSTAL!

The Gate shrank in on itself, evaporating to a single intense point of emerald that outshone the nebula as the two pursuing pirate fighters burst through the cloud. They had only seconds to wonder about it before the residual plasma, combined with the backlash from the Gate disappearance, generated an explosion that made a Nova bomb look sick, and erased them from existence.

The goanna sensor systems officer turned from his board to face the rest of the station command crew. The main screen of the command deck showed an expanding halo of white hot gas, centred on the beleaguered ship's last transmission.

"He's gone…", the monitor lizard said, in a stunned voice.

The base fighters spread out, circling, but there wasn't anything they could do.

**Authors Notes:** No Foxes were harmed in the making of this fanfic… no really, our favourite vulpine fighter pilot is perfectly safe. And, oh boy, is he in for a surprise, though if you read the story title and the dedication you'll have a pretty good idea of where the Arwing II will emerge. As for the title, the full quote is… 'It's not a bacon tree, it's a ham-bush!'


	3. Mutual Defence against Claws

**Mission 3 – Mutual Defence (against) Claws**

The Arwing II dropped down through the atmosphere, leaving a blazing re-entry trail. A military re-entry, using your shields to aero-brake, rather than slowing outside the atmosphere and coming in more sedately, was harder on the hardware, but saved time and reactor mass. Considering his electronic warfare system had detected no beacons or transmissions on his way in, and his sensors had detected nothing but a ring of orbital debris around this planet, Fox figured that was pretty important. Because right now, the chances of getting his tanks refuelled with dark matter were looking as close to zero he could figure.

Still, he wasn't going to complain. Having a random Gate transfer drop him near enough any star to even see a disk made winning the Cornerian Planetary Lottery look likely by comparison. Having it drop him within visual range of a potentially habitable planet was stretching his luck so far it was going to need a chiropractor. Besides, his instincts, that sixth sense that gave him his edge in combat, was tingling with an unusual intensity. 'This is the place I need to be.'

He'd quickly confirmed it was habitable, or rather inhabited. He'd approached from system zenith (he'd manually reset his navigation system to use this planet's orbit as a system ecliptic, and orbital directions the same as Lylat) and raced to match vectors with it. His approach vector had made it easy to go into a un-powered low polar orbit. He had turned the ship to face the planet surface, so he could look ahead through the cockpit at the surface, and so could his primary sensor array.

He'd covered the day side and night side during the three orbits. While there were no great spreads of light on the night side like the cities on Corneria, there were small clusters of illumination in various places if he used his zoom goggles. Towns, though what the inhabitants would look like was anybody's guess.

His sensors were also putting together a basic topographical map, correlating light sources with locations. Once again, e-warfare and sensors confirmed no-one down there used modulated electromagnetic waves, unless they had heliographs, or had large artificial energy sources. What radiation they could find was broadband thermal, fires and natural emissions.

The acid test was still to come, whether _he_ could survive here. Since he was in a space fighter and not a survey ship, he couldn't take spectrographs of the atmosphere from orbit. The only way to check it was breathable was to 'suck it and see' or rather go atmospheric and let his ship's atmosphere analyser take a sniff. (This was pretty much standard on any small craft, when you didn't have an EVA suit, you definitely didn't want to get out of your ship in a hangar bay that was full of vacuum, or poison gases).

As the last of the ionisation cleared, Fox adjusted the G-Diffusers to atmosphere mode and extended the Arwing's blade-like wings. He was still a good 5 skm up, and heading 'West', or rather towards the sunset line. He'd made a plane change to a lower inclination orbit, and chosen a re-entry path so that if the air proved good, he'd over-fly a number of useful landing sites. The analyser took a moment to stabilise, and reported. Yup, this stuff would do him no harm, in fact the air quality was better than Corneria.

While this was good, breathing was a habit he had no intention of giving up on, it was another nail in the coffin of getting home. These guys were clearly not in an industrial age. While orbiting, his sensors had figured out a rotational period, mass and surface gravity. The days were longer than Cornerian standard by a few hours, and the gravity about 0.9 CG, enough to give him a slight advantage in muscle and endurance on anything native. Especially as he now ran the grids on the Great Fox at 1.2 CG, one of the few advantages of being the sole occupant.

He dropped lower. He was passing over a forested region that reminded him of parts of Fortuna. His landing zone would be mid-morning on a continent that definitely had inhabitants, and far enough away from the inhabited areas that he could get acclimatised without being interrupted. He'd have most of the day to explore, get some kind of idea what the place was like before settling down for the night. Not that it would make the space lag any less comfortable as his body adjusted to the new clock.

There, between those two hills, that clearing… He slowed, and dropped down on VTOL thrust, the G-Diffusers reducing the effective mass of the ship to a few hundred kilograms. From the terrain, hills underlay the forest here, and there was the silver trickle of a river snaking down the centre-line of the valley the clearing was in, only a few hundred sm away. The Arwing touched down lightly, and within seconds the canopy had popped and Fox jumped down.

He took a deep breath… "Looks like that atmosphere analysis was right on the money."

His first thought was to check under the hull. All that was left of the Gate generator was the attachment rail. Fortunately, whatever had happened had also removed the disabler, and transponder, as his systems had returned to normal shortly after he woke up. Well, that was it. His chances of ever seeing Lylat again, or indeed any other system, were now officially zero.

Oddly enough, he didn't feel as bad as he'd expected. Maybe it was because he hadn't yet accepted it emotionally, or because of his earlier decision to go explore the galaxy anyway. For now he was just glad the thought hadn't reduced him to an emotional wreck, because he had a planet to explore.

He started doing a couple of exercises to loosen up. He'd been stuck in that cockpit for about 10 hours straight, strapped into his seat. His shoulders ached and his tail had gone to sleep. Of course, his back was towards the Arwing, and his eyes scanned the tree-line for anything nasty. His blaster, fully charged with a 100 round clip, sat on his hip. This time General Pepper wasn't calling the shots.

Having worked most of the kinks out, he decided to go check on that river. He switched on the Arwing's beacon, collected the canteen from his survival gear, tapped the PDA code to close the canopy, and set out. He hadn't gone 20 sm into the forest before he came on a surprise. The tree was quite ordinary, as were the big brown pods attached to it, but it was the location of the vegetation, that stopped him dead.

"This is crazy! How did a Dumbledang tree end up here?"

He avoided it, this was too weird. But it got weirder, as along the next stretch he found a plant with a glowing yellow gem-like fruit at the centre of it's crown. This was enough to make him go back to his Arwing and collect the staff he'd found on Sauria. It still had sufficient power to extend to it's full length, and when he used it to knock down the gem, it absorbed it as easily as it had back on the dinosaur planet.

Fox shook his head. "Oookay… I just happen to end up on a planet that just happens to have duplicates of plants I know only grow on Sauria… Either the stress has sent me completely out of my furry skull, or something screwy is going on. And talking to myself is _not_ a good sign…"

He pressed on, looking for the glint of water through the trees. What he saw, after several more minutes walking, was the glint of something, and cries of pain and anger. He raced forward, reaching the edge of the tree-line in seconds. Below, an unpaved road ran along the near side of the river, and on it there was an impossible battle. The attackers were Sharpclaw, identical to the temperate zone grunts he'd fought in Thorntail Hollow. There were two waves, about two dozen all told, and they had clearly waylaid a caravan. Fighting them were blue foxes, in tunic tops and skirts or shorts, depending on gender.

They were protecting a line of wood wheeled caravans, drawn by huge beetles. Some were like wheeled houses, others clearly fabric roofed cargo carriers. Of course, right now they weren't going anywhere, because a massive log had been dropped across the unpaved track, and a number of rocks had clearly been rolled down from the raised bank he stood on, smashing several wheels.

Both sides were wielding simple melee weapons, the Sharpclaw their signature clubs and axes and the foxes with spears and long knives. Two foxes were down, injured or dead, behind the defending skirmish line. The remaining nine were out-powered, out-numbered and lacked the Sharpclaw round shields, only holding their own through superior speed and agility. They also had teamwork, covering each others flanks.

An even dozen Sharpclaw faced them, and another dozen were back some way, forming a reserve, so it was quite clear who the ultimate winner would be. A bow-fox… a female with white head fur, popped up from over the back of a cart, and shot a crossbow at the rear line, but a thrown spear from one of the reserves caught her in the belly and she went down.

Fox's blaster was already in his hand, and even as the Sharpclaw let fly. A blaster bolt hit the lizard in the head, sending him down charred and smouldering. Fox snapped off half a dozen shots from the hip, decimating the reserve force even as they turned to face this new threat. Five were down before they could charge, and as they covered the dozen standard metres between them and Fox, another three went down, as Fox stood there with a two handed grip, blasting them like targets on a shooting range.

Several Sharpclaw spears had been thrown, but on the run and hastily aimed. Only one came close, and Fox simply side-stepped to let it smack into a tree at one side. Three Sharpclaw survived, and raced up the bank towards him. One got a carefully aimed blaster bolt that punched through his upraised shield and charred the head behind, but the other two got into melee range.

Fox dropped his blaster and pulled out the staff, even as he jumped over the wicked axe slice one creature aimed at his legs. He rolled to the side putting him beyond the other's reach for the moment and focussed on the axe wielder. His riposte was a two handed blow that smashed the Sharpclaw's helmet down on his head, and a kick to the face that sent the raptor tumbling down the bank. This left the other with a clear shot and a wicked two handed thrust from a spear nearly caught Fox in the thigh.

Fox spun his staff to deflect it, and turned the movement into a sweeping smash at the body of his opponent. The Sharpclaw was still over balanced from his own over-committed strike, and took it full in the shoulder. A bone crunched. Fox didn't let up, following with a flurry of blows that beat the creature to the ground, blood pouring from it's snout. Seconds later it evaporated in a flare of light, as had the monsters that had fallen to his blaster bolts.

He bounded down the slope to where the other was trying to pick itself up. He used his momentum to thrust with the staff and knock it flying, then flipping the staff end for end and triggering the lit sigil for the Fire Blaster technique. It struck the Sharpclaw who jerked and fell still, smoking from it's armour joints. He followed up by sighting carefully along the staff, and sending a second blast into the Sharpclaw on the furthest end of the skirmish line.

It didn't go down, but the blast crippled it, slowing it enough that the fox opposing it could strike home with his knife. Fox considered following up with the Seismic Strike, but decided there was too much risk of catching the foxes in his area of effect. Looked like he was going to have to get up-close and personal. Well, he had no problem with that.

He bounded forward with a yell, and smashed into the rear of the enemy line with another overhand blow to the centre Sharpclaw warrior, driving the staff down between shoulder and neck. There was a crunching sound, and the Saurian warrior crumpled like a puppet with it's strings cut, head lolling in a way that suggested it wasn't connected to it's spine any more.

A follow up sweep to one side smashed at the legs of a Sharpclaw who had his blue fox opponent on the ropes, the fox trying to block a downward driven axe with a crosswise held spear. The Sharpclaw went down, and the blue fox spun his spear-tip downwards and thrust it though the creature's eye. For a second, the two vulpines' eyes met, and the blue one called out something that sounded thankful, but which ended in a yelp of alarm.

Fox's sixth sense tingled, and he dropped and rolled away from a wild axe swing made by the Sharpclaw on the opposite side of the opening. The creature paid for his split attention, taking a slash from the knife of the vixen opposite him that went right past his shield and into the arm behind it. But the lizard shook it off, kicking out to push off the vixen and sending her over backwards with a gashed thigh from his vicious foot claws.

He dived at Fox, having decided he was a bigger threat. Fox triggered the Ice Spray as he stepped back, blasting the thing in the face. It froze, and he shattered it with a straight forward thrust. There were glad cries from the foxes. None of the Sharpclaws had said anything, or even cried out in pain, apart from the grunts, hisses and odd mewlings that had accompanied similar fights on Sauria.

He hadn't used the thing in years, and yet it was like he'd practised only yesterday. He heard another cry of warning from the fox next to him, and saw something green and moving reflected in one of the shards. He slammed the staff horizontally backwards, spinning on his heels as he did so. He was rewarded with a crunch and a pained yelp as the Sharpclaw that had been about to decorate his skull with a club got the sharp end of the staff in his ribs.

Fox spun the staff again, bringing the end down on the thing's weapon holding arm. The club dropped from it's nerveless grip, but it pounced in, discarding it's shield in order to slash at him with the claws on it's one good arm. He ducked under the swing, grounding the staff and sliding it in so the Sharpclaw would land on it. He then heaved, and the warrior flew over his head to land flat on it's back.

Three more had withdrawn from the skirmish line, which closed up behind them. Rather than finish the downed one off, he drew back, hoping to bring them away from the defenders. As the damaged one hauled itself up, and the four followed him, he grinned. "You guys are going to quake in your… uh… ankle bracer things.'

The staff slammed down, and a Seismic strike shock-wave blasted out, knocking all four to the floor, but not reaching the blue fox defenders.

He vaulted, using the grounded staff and landed on the poor abused Sharpclaw he'd earlier thrown. Something crunched, and it vanished. The next one was only half way to it's feet when Fox dived into it, spinning his staff like a cuisinart blade. The flurry of blows, followed by a straight thrust to it's chest, knocked it back, and slamming it into the next one in line even as that creature tried to get around it.

The two fell back in a tangle of limbs, but the third dodged out of the way and attacked. Not with it's axe, but by shield bashing him. Once again his reflexes, and more than merely acute awareness, saved him. The edge merely clipped his muzzle as he tumbled backwards, but gave him a bloody nose. As went over backwards into a hunched position like a sprinter on the blocks, the creature attempted to slice him in two with it's axe. With no time to dodge, Fox triggered his energy shield, and the axe rebounded, taking the monster off balance.

Fox didn't need an engraved invitation, lashing it with a blast of fire and actually running up the body as it tumbled backwards. This gave him the height to drop on the two other fallen lizards, who were still trying to untangle themselves. They never had chance as a Seismic strike slammed into the upper one's chest plate. It crunched inwards, while the Sharpclaw underneath appeared to have embedded itself in the ground. When they disappeared, it had left a sharp relief in the hard packed dirt by the side of the track.

Fox's staff was now almost dry, but he didn't need to do any more. With the weakening of the Sharpclaw skirmish line, the defending foxes seemed to gain a new strength. Now the foxes' teamwork and speed made it possible to tag-team their larger, slower, but tougher opponents. The remaining, outnumbered Sharpclaw had been swarmed, and even as Fox straightened up, a tall blue male fox, bare to the waist, bounded in and struck at the last, downed creature with a machete style knife. The Sharpclaw lay there for a few seconds, then started to dissolve in light.

With the last foe down, other foxes had emerged from the wagons, older women and little children mostly, wearing loin-clothes or smocks. A few rushed forward to tend to the fallen defenders, carrying bundles that could only be medical supplies, but many, and all of the defenders still upright, were standing there, looking at him, not nervously but curiously. He shrank the staff and slotted it away, then sniffled slightly.

A hand to his nose revealed he was still bleeding, and lacking a handkerchief he used an engineers rag from a jacket pocket to staunch the flow.

He must look odd to them, a red furred fox in his standard green flight suit, boots and jacket, his headset still on his head. A few were talking, and their words sounded familiar, but not understandable. Suddenly he made a connection, and reached into his pocket, switching his PDA on voice command. "Saurian translator, activate." He sub-vocalised, and found their speech suddenly made sense.

"One of untranslated word, out here?"

"I'm glad he was, that green-scaled creature almost had me."

"But why the red dyed fur?"

"Maybe it is the blood of all the monsters he has killed…"

"He's the one bleeding… we should offer to help."

There were other comments that the translator didn't catch, and for that matter didn't even sound like Saurian, but the ones that did gave pause for thought. Fox was about to speak, when he saw an older fox, with white wispy fur on his cheeks, chin and muzzle, came forward. He gave a polite bow, and said, "We thank you, there was that untranslated word again. Without your aid, I fear we would have been over-run."

Fox was trying to figure out the word the translator hadn't got. He'd been trying to learn Saurian himself, partly in case he needed to go back to the dinosaur planet, but mostly to stave off simply moping around the corridors of the Great Fox II. 'Fhekosk'eh'… the 'eh' meant a term for a person doing a job… one who protects, one who guards… protector, maybe? Context suggested it was some sort of title, or proper name term, which was why the translator hadn't caught it.

He spoke in Lylatian, unwilling to try his own Saurian, and knowing the same sono-projector elements that fed clear audio to his ears would mask his own speech and replace it with Saurian.

"Just glad I got here in time. My name is Fox McCloud, and I come in peace."

The elder gave him a slightly quizzical look, head-cocked to one side, and said, "Actually, you came in fighting, and thank the Udsaodkj you did."

Another word the translator didn't get. And was that phrasing a bit of dry humour, or just translation difficulty? Fox wasn't sure, but grinned anyway. The elder continued, "You are injured, can we help?".

Fox shook his head. "It's just a bloody nose. Blocking a shield using my face wasn't one of my better moves."

"I am Horegan, leader of the Teraso trading caravan." He gestured behind him to the string of wagons.

Fox realised wounded were still being treated. "Look, introductions can wait, your guys are in far worse shape than I am. Is there anything else _I_ can do to help?"

Horegan sighed. "Thank you, but no. Our wounded are either being treated, or made comfortable…"

The language might be different, but body posture and reactions seemed to be the same, so Fox could detect there was more to this than he'd said. The ones who'd been in the line were being fixed up pretty effectively as far as he could see… Even the pair who were downed had clearly survived. Then he remembered, the girl fox with the bow… that spear had hit her pretty low down…

"The girl who shot off the bow, the one with the spear wound…"

"My grand daughter, Arera. The spear is lodged in her stomach. Even if we could call a Cloudrunner and carry her to a healer, there would be little they could do…" The old guy was clearly holding back his emotions. "All we can do is give her numbing herbs to take away the pain."

Fox hung his head. "Damn it! If I'd only been a fraction of a second sooner, I'd have hit that Sharpclaw before he made the cast!" He was trying to think… maybe, just maybe, he could help.

"I can't promise, but… I may have a way to heal her…"

The other grabbed him by the shoulders with what little force he had. "Truly? I didn't think Staff magic could heal as well." His shoulders slumped. "Unless you mean Dumbledang juice… it's restorative powers are great, but not for this kind of wound."

Fox wasn't surprised. Dumbledang pod juice contained a natural agent that boosted a body's healing rate tremendously, almost equivalent to the Fast Heal agents recently developed by Cornerian biotechnology. But if he remembered his first aid, it was infection caused by damage to the intestines that was the major killer, that and blood loss.

Fortunately, the Cornerian Army field medi-kit he carried in his Arwing was the latest model, supposedly capable of allowing a grunt with basic first aid training to fix anything short of major organ damage, or at least stabilise the patient until med-evac arrived. After his little sojourn on Sauria, he never left the Great Fox without it. After all, he'd assumed that the next planet wouldn't _have_ Dumbledang pods…

"No, I have to fetch my own healing supplies. Keep her still, don't remove the spear, and don't allow her to drink…" He turned and beat feet back towards the Arwing, stopping only at the top of the embankment to scoop up his blaster, safe it and holster it.

As he did, he tried to figure out what in the acidic aqua-sphere of Venom was going on! This wasn't Sauria, he knew that without even seeing the continents. That sun was not Beta, a golden orange K type, and the planetary stats were different too. But it had Saurian plants and Horegan had mentioned Cloudrunners… but they hadn't used the Saurian term Sharpclaw.

And the foxes themselves… Krystal had not said much about her home-world, or how she'd gotten to Sauria, beyond the fact that her planet had been destroyed. She'd also been very clear that she didn't want to talk further about it. He was equally certain that she hadn't lied about it. He'd seen it in her eyes, the same thing he'd seen in the mirror that day Peppy had returned from Venom, alone. They'd both lost so much…

She'd certainly had no space craft of her own, the only ones on Sauria had been Venomian left-overs, including the shuttle that had carried her to the Great Fox, and that had been running on an automatic program. Now he wished he'd pried more. Darn it, they _had_ to be the same species, but how did they get here, and where was here? Maybe his new friends could give some answers…

He burst into the clearing where his Arwing was, hit the opening combination on his PDA, and scrambled up the air-ladder even as it folded out. The kit itself was not much bigger than his forearm, a flat case with a carrying handle and a relief image of a stylised bandaged paw, the universal Lylatian medical symbol.

On the way back, he knocked down another energy crystal (the plants recovered as quickly as on Sauria) and a Dumbledang pod. It couldn't hurt to have one for after-care, even if it couldn't heal a stomach wound. On the way back, his thoughts went onto another track, what to say about himself. He decided, in the end to be as honest as possible. Part of that was the fact that he wasn't sure if there were other telepaths around. Getting caught in an obvious lie wouldn't do him any good.

Well, at least there was no time for much explaining as he arrived back at the caravan. He was taken to the back of a caravan where the vixen lay on a bunk, unconscious. There was an older fox female there, mopping her brow with a damp cloth. He realised the girl was little more than a kit, 14 to 15 CS years at most.

The spear was still in her, which was a relief. As long as it was in it sealed the holes it had made, at least partially. Of course, it was practically through to her back bone, which meant the chances of survival were almost nil, unless he could save her.

The woman looked up, worry written across her face. "You really can save my daughter?"

Fox's answering expression was tight lipped and serious. "I think so. I have to try. My tools may not be familiar to you, so please don't be surprised at anything that happens." He opened up the case and pulled out a hand-held medical scanner, and set to work.

**Authors Notes:** The plot thickens, and so does my writing. I stand by my assessment that Krystal's people don't have space faring technology of their own. The shuttle that was used to carry her to the Great Fox was used earlier by the Sharpclaws to ferry Prince Tricky. Therefore it was most likely Venomian. If she'd had her own ship, she'd have used it instead, or gotten them to recover it if it were damaged.


	4. A New Hope?

**Mission 4 – First Contract**

It was over an hour later that Fox emerged from the caravan, paws still wet and matted under the spray on surgical seal gloves. Like their distant quadrupedal ancestors, foxes sweated through their palms, avoiding the primate need for underarm deodorant.

He'd never given doctors enough credit. There was something unclean about seeing someone's insides exposed like that. An odd reaction for a someone who'd fought to the death so often, but in space combat you were either fine or sucking vacuum/superheated plasma, whereas in atmosphere, losing generally resulted in the sort of remains you could send home in a self seal bag, a _small_ self seal bag at that. Even on Sauria or against Aparoid infested Lylatian soldiers or O'Donnell's goons, where the fighting was face to face, he'd never cut anyone open, or had to investigate the aftermath at all closely.

As he peeled off the gloves, Horegan came up to him. "Arera… is she…"

Fox gave a gusty sigh. "She'll live. I'm pretty sure. I told her mother what to do. Keep her warm and still, don't give her liquids or solid foods just yet." He was parroting the instructions of the medical scanner, which had analysed the wound, and reduced treatment to a series of instructions that someone far denser than Fox could follow without difficulty.

When the spear was removed, surgical bio-foam had scavenged the cavity for dirt and eliminated bacteria, as well as providing a temporary matrix to prevent anything more from flowing into the cavity. He'd depiliated the skin with a spray and trauma pack had been sealed over it, basically a fist sized robot that deployed hundreds of thread thin tendrils under the control of the medical scanner and it's own sensors. It had sealed up the ragged gashes in intestines and a kidney, and pumped them full of antibiotics and Fast Heal. Finally, it had sealed together the entry wound. Fox had finished by spraying the surface with synthetic skin, which not only acted as a breathable, tear-proof bandage, but also formed a scaffold for cell re-growth.

"She'll have a bald spot on her stomach for a week, and don't let anyone try and pull off the cover before that…" He held up one of the transparent glove shapes. "… this stuff. It's holding the wound together like a bandage until her body can heal up."

Horegan went past him, and as fast as possible up the steps. A younger fox, followed the elder. Even so he was easily Fox's age and presumably the girl's father. Following the medical scanners instructions had been the easy part. Trying to explain some of the things he'd been using to her mother, that had been tough. The Saurian language didn't have words for holo-displays, medical repair packages or self reconstituting blood substitute. But he'd managed, sort of.

The medical kit was back together, though minus some consumables. The only thing Fox had left behind was a medical monitor, a coin sized device attached to a depiliated spot on her wrist, and activated by body heat. It was projecting a palm sized holo-display above itself, showing her vital signs. The numbers were green at the moment, and as long as they stayed that way, she'd be alright.

Fox made his way back over to the bank that led up to the forest edge, shucked his jacket and used it as a blanket to sit down on. Dozing in your cockpit gave you a short term rest, but you paid for it later. Plus, to give himself time to explore and check his immediate area was safe, he'd selected a spot near the centre of the day side, but his internal bio-rhythms insisted it was already evening.

He watched the work going on with interest. While he'd been inside the caravan, the able bodied foxes, male and female, had clearly been busy. The beetles had been harnessed together and were pulling the fallen tree to one side, while supports had been set under the frames of the damaged carts, and wheels were being replaced.

He noted with surprise that while wooden, the rims were wide splayed, well designed for travelling on muddy, unpaved roads, and the hubs mounted onto the axles with metal ball races. As for the caravans, their wood panels were carefully carved with relief images, and the open shuttered windows were glazed. Their tech base might be limited, but it was a lot less crude than he'd first imagined.

A couple of the adults were missing, which puzzled him, until he realised they'd been sent out as scouts against further attack. It explained why none of the adults had time for him at the moment, but a girl, young lady actually, did come over. Her head-fur was tied back in a long pigtail, and the tan, belted tunic she wore, did little to hide her curves. Her thigh had been neatly bandaged with some form of white cloth, which peeked out from below the tunic hem.

Her voice was high, and just a little nervous. "Protector? I wanted to say thank-you personally."

"Uh… that's okay…" He didn't correct her, still not being sure what a Protector was. She seemed familiar. Suddenly he recognised her, the one who'd been kicked over backwards by that Sharpclaw. "Are you sure you should be moving around? It looked like that goon caught you a solid one…"

"You mean you saw that?" The vixen blushed, the fur on her cheeks gaining a purple hue from the underlying skin. "It probably looked worse than it was. But if you hadn't distracted him, it would have been, worse I mean. If there's anything I can do to help…"

Fox was almost as off balance, despite being sat down. The adrenaline was finally wearing off, and combined with space lag as his body tried to cope with the new planet, and the fact that he'd had nothing but a ration bar and some recycled water in the last 12 hours, he was feeling hungry, thirsty and tired.

The scent coming from a couple of the caravans was ambrosial.

"If we're talking of helping, I feel a bit bad about not helping changing wheels or moving the road block. But I just figured I'd be in the way. And I'm running currently pretty much on fumes. Right now, I could _really_ do with something to eat and drink…"

"Oh, Udsaodkj, of course!" The girl put her hands up and stepped back, flustered. "I'll go get you something right away." She dashed off.

"Wait…" He hadn't expected her to do something personally. Fox had given himself a dose of broad spectrum antibiotics and a bio-tech supplement that should buttress his digestive system against local bacteria from the medi-kit. So he should be okay with local food and water.

What was that word she'd used 'Udsaodjk'? No, 'Udasodkj'. A 'J' ending meant a plural… He quickly scanned the database in his PDA for root words. 'oldness'? No 'ancient' was the best match. 'Ancients'? Hmm…

He shifted his tail out from under him, leaned back and put his arms behind his head. Hopefully, he could travel with these people towards more populated areas, and as he went, find out about the place and their customs. After all, he was most likely going to be here for a very long time.

"Uh… Mister protector, sir?"

Fox raised his head to see one of the children, a boy who couldn't be more than 12, had come over. He was wearing a blue sleeveless jacket and a jaunty red neckerchief. Trailing him were an even younger pair of girls. The older was in a yellow tunic and her long violet head fur was in twin ponytails, with matching blue ribbons on plats and tail tip. The younger in a simple smock, carrying a doll and holding the elder girls hand.

"You wanted something?" Fox asked.

The boy was clearly spokes-fox, or just faster off the mark than the older girl. He indicated the younger girl. "Rindusi here wanted to know why your fur was red. I told her you must paint it or something, but neither of them believe it. Girls!"

The older girl huffed at that.

Fox sat back up. "Oh?" He grinned. "Sorry to bust up your party, but they're right. Where I come from, red fur is normal for foxes, or occasionally white and grey. Blue fur is the odd colour." He held out a forearm and ruffled the fur to show it was crimson right down to the roots.

"Toldya!" The older girl grinned and gave the boy a red-eye. Then she said to Fox. "I think it looks nice."

"So, I was wrong. First time for everything." The boy seemed undismayed. "That's kinda neat anyway! You must have come from really far away, like over the oceans even. Did you come here in a jboo-jxaf?"

"Huh?" That caught his attention. Another word that his translator missed, a noun… "Jboo-jxaf?" But the words were familiar, he mentally broke it down… vessel… air… sky-ship!

He caught hold of his rising excitement. "Have you ever seen one?"

The boy grinned, clearly proud of his chance to show off his knowledge. "Yeah! Lots of times! When we went to the capital, I snuck away and had a real good look around the docks. They had some real big ones with three masts, and even steam propellers."

That sounded less promising. Dirigibles? With sails? And steam engines? How could that work? Meanwhile the boy went on.

"One day I'm going to be a sky-ship captain, and sail all the way around Cerinia, and discover all sorts of cool things, and come back with a huge pile of treasure, and everyone will know me as Baisu the Legend!"

"Cerinia?" That would make sense, except for one thing. According to Krystal, it no longer existed. So either she'd been mistaken, or something truly bizarre was going on.

"I guess you must call it something else where you come from…"

"Well duh! Baisu the Blindingly Obvious is more like it." The girl would clearly have folded her arms, if she wasn't still holding Lindsi's hand.

"Baisu! Aika! Stop bothering the Protector!" The vixen from earlier had come back, carrying a tray with food on it.

"No harm done." Fox said, straightening up. "In fact, they've been very helpful. And my friends call me Fox."

"Well it's time for mid-meal, so they'll just have to go and help himself to that!" she replied, shooing the kids away to where an older woman was preparing stuff. "My name is Sorako."

"Nice to meet you, Sorako." As she set down the tray by him, he sniffed, and his appetite started sending urgent messages to his taste buds. "Now _that_ smells good."

The bowl had some sort of white grain, and what he'd have guessed as grilled fish on top. Of course, considering his lack of knowledge, it could just as easily be haunch of beetle on insect eggs. There was also a drinking horn, a genuine horn that was off one of those beetle's heads. It had been sealed at the bottom with a leather cap, and the tip was some sort of plug.

But he already knew from Krystal's medical scans, and the Arera's that anything they ate, he could eat, and that was what he was going to do. He picked it up, and the wooden spoon/knife that was with it. He noticed Sorako watching him eagerly, and tried it. The fish… he was almost certain it was, had been marinaded in something that gave it a deep tangy flavour, and there was an overtone to the grain too.

He took several more spoonfuls. "This is great!" He hadn't had an actual hand-cooked meal in… over a month, since the last time he was on Corneria, and that was at a restaurant. In space he just nuked pre-packs, gourmet ones, but they just didn't have the same taste as proper cooking. Peppy had been a good cook, and Slippy a fair one, so it had never really been necessary to learn.

The vixen purpled again, ducking her head. "Thank you. It's the least I could do."

"You made this? My compliments to the cook." He felt himself falling into 'Hero Fox' mode slightly, deflecting deeper contact by keeping things light and easy. He took up the drinking horn and popped the cap. The liquid inside was light, fruit flavoured, and had an after-kick like an Arwing on boost.

"Whoa! That's some pretty potent stuff."

"I hope it's okay. Loquat spirit, a '58. I don't think grandfather would mind."

Fox shook his head. "I'd better not have too much, I don't drink that often. Especially on an empty stomach." It was true, he'd occasionally have something to be sociable, but he'd spent too much effort cranking up his reflexes to let them be hazed by alcohol.

The girl looked slightly stricken. "I'm sorry! I didn't realise…" She started to get up but as she did, Horegan returned. You could see the relief in him, even his walk was lighter, less burdened.

"Protector, how can I ever repay you? I owe you for the lives of all my family, and Arera's twice over. I have heard of your wondrous tools and medicines… and how unstinting you were with their use."

Fox grinned, holding up the bowl. "Well I got a free meal, so I guess we're even. There was no way I was going to let that kid die…"

"Arera was hurt?" exclaimed Sorako.

"You didn't know? Ah, yes, you were at the far end of the line, you didn't see what happened. She shot one of the green skin creatures with a bow, and got a spear in her stomach in response."

Sorako paled slightly, at least around the eyes, and started to get up. "Little sister… But…" She turned to Fox. "You managed to heal her?"

Fox shrugged. "Someone had to."

In response he got a hug that almost made him drop the bowl. "Woah! Calm down!"

"Sorako!" Horegan exclaimed. The girl fox released him and moved back, a bit guiltily. "Oh, Ancients, I'm sorry, but…"

"I apologise Protector, both for my grand-daughter's over-enthusiastic thank you, and that I took this long to return and give you my thanks."

"Hey, you were caring for your family first. As long as you don't want to hug me too…" Fox smirked again, holding up the bowl. "It's okay, I just didn't want to lose any of this."

Truthfully, he was feeling a lot better than he had in months. He'd wanted to make a difference again, feel needed, and these people had given him a chance to do that. He'd never see Lylat, or his old friends ever again, but maybe he could find new ones. That earlier comment about family brought his team to mind. He finally started to feel, actually accept that he'd never see them again, and it hurt like heck, but the feeling he'd done good helped dull the sharp edges.

Sorako frowned, "You felt sad for a moment, something hurt you…"

"It just hit me… I'll never see any of my old friends, my family, again." Fox looked up at her. In the words of the old saying, he'd expected this, but not so soon. "You're a telepath?"

"oops! Sorry, I didn't intrude, but that was a feeling I couldn't help but sense."

The older fox looked puzzled. "I thought Protectors could sense others with talent. For that matter… Your fur, it lacks the normal symbols…" He was obviously uncomfortable, and Fox could guess why.

"You're wondering if I'm really a Protector… To be honest, I'd never even heard the term 'Protector' until you guys started using it. Well, that's a long story, but the short of it is, I did come by the staff legitimately. Though I guess, not the usual way."

The older man nodded. "In order to wield it the way you do, you would have to have been accepted by it. Even if a thief had the power of mind to command it, the staff itself would not work for someone who'd stolen it from it's rightful owner."

"I figured it was something like that." So all Protectors were apparently all psychic, like Krystal with her telepathy… But that meant he was, and Fox had never had a sniff of anything like that. Unless you counted his hunches… which had been getting stronger and more accurate as he'd been on this planet! Now he came to think about it, the same thing had happened on Sauria. Several times, he'd followed an un-obvious path that had turned out to be the right one. He continued.

"So does all your family have this 'talent'?"

"Only son in law, slightly, and my three granddaughters. The strongest one is my middle grand-daughter, Kurisutaru, also our best scout. Before the green scaled creatures attacked, she sensed something wrong. We were… are heading for the capital so she can take the Trials, and become a Protector herself. I sent her on to the next village, hoping some Protectors might be there. But even if there were, I didn't have much hope that we could hold out till her return…"

At the mention of the name, Fox had almost cried out. But he'd suppressed it, it must be a co-incidence. After all it only sounded similar, and was probably a common first name on Cerinia. The alternative sparked all kinds of metaphysical questions he wasn't equipped to deal with. He scooped up the last of the white grains, and finished them off, scooping the bottom of the bowl to collect the juices from the marinade.

"You weren't doing so badly when I got here. For traders, you know how to hold a line."

The older fox looked gratified. "Thank you, Protector. Well, we do travel the wilder areas, to the smaller villages and towns that can't afford sky-ship docks. There are wild beasts and even occasional bandits, so we have to know how to fend off attacks. Yareru…" He pointed out the burly, stripped to the waist fox who was organising the removal of the tree, "… was a City Guard sergeant in the capital before he married my niece. He trained all the able bodied adults."

He sighed, "But I think those green skinned monsters could have over-run us if they'd all attacked at once. As it was, I could see people were getting tired."

"I don't know if you should call me Protector for now. Like I said, I'm Fox McCloud, and my friends call me Fox. These green skins… I know them as Sharpclaws, do you know where they come from?"

"You know of a name for them? Then you know about as much as anybody. Over the last few months, there have been reports of attacks on outlying villages, and isolated travellers and caravans like ourselves. Other have gone missing without a trace. They attack viciously, and disintegrate when they die. The Protectors have scattered over the lands to hunt them, and the various city watches are recruiting."

"What about your army?" Fox asked.

"Army?" The girl looked puzzled.

"Sorako, you haven't been paying attention in your history lessons." Horegan reproved. "An army is a group of warriors that fights others. In the Time of Troubles, the various cities and peoples feared each other, and fought among themselves."

"Oh, yes, now I remember, but I never understood why. I know it's not like bandits, who fight to steal what they can't make themselves. The different peoples had different skills and resources, so surely it's easier to trade than to fight. You'd end up destroying more than you gained, and people would get hurt."

The aged fox sighed. "I never said it made sense. Fear can be a powerful force, and so can ignorance. Since the time of the Great Council, there have been no need for armies. Each city keeps civil order within it's own territory, and the Protectors deal with matters between cities." He clearly enjoyed explaining, but remembered Fox was there. "I'm sorry, Prot... Foxu, I didn't mean to lecture."

Fox had been as attentive as the girl. "It's okay. I need all the information I can get… Look, I can see you guys are setting up to leave as soon as possible. I certainly wouldn't wait around for those goon's friends to come find out what went wrong. When you go, could you take me with you? I have no local money, but I can work my passage."

"No need, the Teraso always pay their debts, and I already said I owe you for your help. But why, surely you have matters of greater moment than travelling with a simple trading caravan to occupy you?"

Fox thought about this. "Okay, as you must have guessed, I'm a complete stranger here. My homeland is far away, and while I came by… sky-ship, it was by accident, something I can't duplicate. I have no idea where my world… home is from here, and if I did, my ship doesn't have the capacity to take me back. In short, I'm stuck here, and I have not the faintest clue about the local customs, peoples, geography, anything. I only speak the language well because this headset is translating for me.

"I need to find out about this place, since for better or worst I'm here to stay, and I figure having some friends to help me adjust would be worth everything to me. I'll explain in more detail when we're somewhere safer, but that's the meat of it." He'd been as honest as he could, since the girl would detect deception, and besides, he didn't really _want_ to lie to these people.

The girl was almost in tears. "I can feel it… So alone…" She shivered. "Please, grandpa, we have to help. He's telling the truth, really he is."

"I already said we would. And I may not have your gift, child, but I can usually tell when someone is honest." The elder fox stated. "Even if it were not custom to give aid to a Protector when asked, he has more than earned any help we can render. Welcome, Fox McCloud. I'm glad to have you with us."

It appeared that shaking hands was one thing their two civilisations had in common. Fox got to his feet, took the proffered paw and shook it firmly. "Happy to be with you, Horegan." The crimson fox looked around. "I'll get my things from the Arwing and be back in a few minutes."


	5. Foxes and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

**Mission 5 - Foxes and tigers and bears, oh my!**

"Could I come too? I'd like to see this sky-ship of yours." Sorako asked eagerly. "Besides, there may still be some of those… Sharpclaws about. I can watch your back."

Fox frowned, then sighed. He didn't really need anyone else, but he couldn't see a polite way of refusing. "I guess so." He turned and scooped up his jacket, slinging it over one shoulder as he clambered up the bank.

After the first few seconds, Sorako said, "I know you didn't really want me along… but why?"

Fox shook his head. Dang it, he'd failed to guard his thoughts. "I… honestly, I'm not sure. It was just a reflex action. I guess I'm just worried I might get you hurt… no, I don't know! Anyway you're here now, and I could have far worse company."

"Oh…" The young vixen trailing him didn't sound happy, damned with such faint praise.

"Sorry, I didn't mean you weren't good company, just that…" He could fight a dozen space fighters with a crippled ship, so why did he have such trouble with a simple conversation with a nice girl who was just being friendly? He gave an exasperated grunt, annoyed with himself. "I've been travelling alone for some time, I guess I'm just not used to having company. Besides, I've had a rough day and I guess it's affecting my manners."

"It's alright, really… Oh my! Is that your sky-ship?"

They'd just breached the wall of the clearing, and Sorako had stopped short at the sight of the Arwing II.

"Yup." Fox gave a proud little grin. "She's a beauty, isn't she?"

"It is… but nothing like the sky-ships I've seen. It's smaller…" The blue fox moved forward and examined it. "No sails, or propellers… It's made of metal?"

"Yeah, mostly." He wasn't about to explain the cockpit hatch was synthetic gemstone reinforced with silicon nano-polymers. He pressed a button on his PDA and the entry rungs extruded while the hatch opened up. "Let me guess, you guys use wood. I really have to see one of these things for myself."

The girl fox jumped back. "It moved! But you didn't wind a handle or anything!"

"My home land has some really good… artificers." He wasn't sure the translator would handle 'engineers'. He went up the steps easily, and started making preparations. First he called up the ships memory on his control panel and set up a wireless file transfer to his PDA, and a duplicate to the spare he had in the cockpit. Everything from the original records and reports of the first expeditions to Sauria, to the Encyclopedia Lylatica and holo-records of his last space flight.

Next he pulled up the auto-pilot and set up a basic program on a timer. As he acted, he talked over it. "As for how it flies, I could just say, 'very nicely'. But… when you swim you push against the water one way, and you go the other. Heck, propellers work the same way. This throws… stuff out the holes in the back really, really fast, and pushes the ship forward. They're called thrusters."

He didn't see that Sorako was about to stick her muzzle into the thruster exhaust, and suddenly jump back in consequence. "But how does it stay up? It must have repulsion crystals inside it."

The program set up, Fox had turned to the cargo cubby behind the pilot seat. A backpack with survival gear was already there, the best, lightest and most robust he'd been able to assemble. He dropped it in the bucket seat and started adding stuff from side compartments. The other PDA, his spare blaster and the five spare cartridges he carried, each good for 100 regular shots or about 10 charged ones.

The zoom goggles went in the top, A fist sized homing beacon and his power multi-tool. Everything ran on aeterna-packs, molecular stress storage batteries, which would be good for years of constant use. He briefly wished he'd been carrying more hardware, such as a machine gun or personal barrier generator. Heck, if he were wishing, why not a fully equipped Landmaster and Rob overhead to transfer supplies.

Some tissues, his favourite fur shampoo and toothpaste (when you'd just finished an 8 hour stint of convoy duty and landed at a space-base, you generally _really_ wanted a shower), and of course his towel with the Star Fox symbol embroidered on it (you also _really_ wanted to make sure you knew where your towel was). On a whim he added a couple of purse sized 'space baggies' and a roll of vacuum tape, guaranteed to bond to and seal anything from plastic to hull alloy.

Meanwhile he replied to her question. "Repulsion crystals?"

He thought he might understand how their ships might work. He continued. "Not quite. There are smaller thrusters on the underside, but the big blue fins do something similar. They don't actually repel you from the ground, but they make the whole ship lighter… G-Diffusers, because they diffuse the effect of gravity." And reaction forces due to acceleration, but he wasn't going to confuse the issue. "So small thrusters are enough."

She didn't correct him, so he marked up his tentative hypothesis as a good one. If this world was the same as Sauria in some ways, why not others, like the unbalanced repulsion effect that had flung continents into the sky. That meant there should be Force Point temples to control it, and guardians… Protectors, maybe? If he was wrong, he was gloriously wrong, but he had a sneaky suspicion that their airships used the repulsion effect to fly.

If the two worlds were linked somehow, it would explain why Sauria, of all places, had grottoes where you could power up your staff, and power plants to recharge it. It also suggested one other thing. Krystal, his Krystal he amended, remembering that there was a sound-a-like here, had somehow reached Sauria. Maybe he could do so too. The Earthwalkers had a Cornerian hyper-comm transmitter, left over from the original contact teams, so getting back to Corneria would be relatively simple…

He dropped down from the cockpit, slinging the pack easily over one shoulder. "Okay, I'm done." The cockpit automatically closed and the rungs retracted as he walked away.

"But… you're not just going to leave it here?" The girl fox looked back, then dashed to catch up with him.

"I don't think anything around here could get in, but you're right." Fox grinned.

Sorako looked non-plussed. "I don't understand."

"You will. But I figure you'll understand better if you see it first hand."

They reached the convoy, which was packing up and ready to go. The big beetles were being backed into harness, and people were loading things aboard.

Fox waved from the top of the embankment, even as Sorako scrambled down.

Horegan called out to some of the closer foxes to gather round, and they relayed the message on. By the time Fox reached them, practically the entire caravan, maybe 30 people were standing there. Horegan moved over to stand by him.

"Everyone, this is Protector Fox McCloud. He is a stranger in this land, but he came to help us without regard for his own safety, even as one of our own Protectors would. He will be travelling with us, and everyone will treat him with the courtesy a Protector should expect."

There were nods and murmurs that sounded at minimum agreeable up to pleased, with Sorako as one of the latter. Fox put one hand to the back of his neck, adjusting his neck scarf. He wasn't exactly comfortable with his new appellation, but he really didn't have a choice.

"Thanks everyone. I'll try not to get in the way." That got a few chuckles, though he hadn't meant to be funny. "I don't want to step on anyone's paws with this Protector thing, so please, just call me Fox. When we camp somewhere safe for the night, I'll tell you all a bit more about where I'm from. For now, I figure not being here if those Sharpclaws come back is probably the smartest thing we could do."

Horegan nodded. "Indeed. Very well, mount up! We've got many ri to go before nightfall, and we need to get under-way…"

The crowd started to break up, and Sorako gave him a cheery farewell as she turned to go to her family caravan. Then Fox added, "Oh, and I have a sky-ship, but I can't take it with me, so I'm sending it somewhere safe. Don't be alarmed when it flies overhead. It's on auto-… it has a uhhh… self guiding tiller?"

There were more murmurs, and people glanced at the blue skies, but nothing happened immediately. It wasn't until everyone was on the carts that there was a faint rising whine, and a rumble. After a few seconds, his Arwing II cleared the tree-line about 30 metres high and 80 metres ahead. There were some gasps and exclamations of amazement, but people had been warned, and the cart beetles seemed to phlegmatically ignore it.

It circled round, tucking back it's wings as it came to a hover out over the widest part of the river, turning to face 'west'. The G-diffusers flexed, and the main thrusters lit as it angled itself towards the sky. It started to rise, continually accelerating and leaving it's signature white trail. After a few tens of seconds, the trail disappeared into the sky, and a faint boom was heard as it breached the sound barrier.

Fox was sitting up on the lead cargo caravan with Horegan, who turned and said, "Stranger and stranger. Wasn't your ship damaged?"

"No, that was just the sound of it… going very fast." He was not going to explain 'breaking the sound barrier' just yet. Then he realised the older fox meant earlier. "Oh, no. It no longer has the range to take me home, but it's still good for short flights. But… could you imagine me landing at a port in one of the towns in it? Especially with me not knowing the first thing about what to do and say?"

Horegan nodded. "I see your point. Well at least we can remedy that. I'll help you to learn to speak the Ancients language without your device, and I think you should learn common speech as well."

"Common speech?" Fox asked.

"Hai, nihongo wa Nihon tokai no go desu, ganpon desu. Which means, 'Yes, common speech is the language of Nihon city, the capital'. Of course, Ancient speech is already known to every people in the lands, which is why we traders use it so much. But Common use is growing…"

"Oh boy, I've gotta long way to go. Well, it's not like I'm leaving any time soon."

'At least unless I find the way back, and maybe not then, at least not right away.', he added mentally. He couldn't shake the feeling he was here for a purpose, and he'd have to find out what it was and complete it. He never gave a job anything less than his best…

Horegan started another topic. "I suspect Sorako wouldn't mind helping you learn our languages either, and as a telepath, she could do it a lot faster than I. She certainly doesn't have any problem being around you." There was a questioning tone in his translated voice.

Fox held up his hands in a posture of denial. "Whoa! I haven't done anything to encourage that! It's just gratitude, and maybe a bit of hero worship."

The elder fox chuckled. "Relax, I wasn't accusing you of anything improper. I can understand why hero worship might be a factor, after all, you are a hero."

Fox snorted. "Hero is a four letter word." Then he realised Horegan didn't understand the idiom. "Many swear words in my language have four letters, and so does 'hero'."

Comprehension dawned. "You dislike being called a hero? After what you've done?"

The crimson fox sighed. "In my book, heroes are people with more guts than sense who are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Slippy, a good friend of mine, was often like that. My philosophy is, you do the job that needs doing, and do it the best you can. But that's not heroism, that's responsibility. Someone has to do it, and if no-one else can, who does that leave?"

"Strange. Most people would accept such accolades as their due."

"Well I'm not 'most people'."

Horegan nodded. "On that we can agree. Whatever else, most people would have headed off in the opposite direction when they saw our situation."

Fox blushed a deeper red for a second. He yawned mightily, and a little theatrically, though the fatigue was genuine.

"Sorry, Horegan, I'm kinda tired. Mind if I drop over the back and catch some shut eye… sleep?" There was a bed roll back there, obviously for a guard or off duty driver.

At the elder foxes assent, he climbed over into the back, laid his jacket down as a pillow, got himself into the roll, covered his eyes and fell asleep in seconds. A soldierly attribute left over from his time at the Academy, and honed by years of mercenary work. Like most veteran warriors he slept when and where he could. A few hours flat on his back left him refreshed, but aching, as the suspension on the cart left something to be desired, like having any.

It was an exclamation of surprise that woke him, and he threw off the blanket, springing up in seconds, hand to his blaster. But then he realised it wasn't a negative cry. From the change in the direction of the sunlight several hours had passed, and in the late afternoon rays, he saw his first sky-ship, and ship was the word for it.

About three times the length of his Arwing, and deep enough for a full deck below, the hull was caravel built, a flush surface of polished yellow wood with a sturdy ballast keel bisecting it. A single mast stood proud amidships, bearing a triangular foresail and jib-sail out on a bowsprit, and a reverse lateen on a flying yard. It wouldn't have looked out of place in any marina on Corneria or Zoness, except for two things.

Two sideways yard arms extended from the either side of the mid deck, carrying wing-like sails that were currently furling up as lines wound inwards. And of course there was the small matter that the whole contraption was hovering about five standard metres above the ground. Anchors were dropped over the side, and bit into the earth below, and it came to a stop, the regular sails furling too.

It was too high above them to see clearly see the crew on deck, but that quickly proved unnecessary. A blue flash dropped over the side, almost sliding down an anchor rope to drop to the earth, and raced over to the halted caravan. Fox watched in amazement, not the ship, but the figure.

She wore a familiar top and shorts combination, and her tail was bound with cloth bands, though her fur was devoid of the white symbols he knew so well, and she carried no staff. But her movements, her face, everything else about her called out to him. He'd spent over a year committing every motion, every curve to memory. He whispered, "Krystal?"

It was her, he _knew_ it as surely as he knew his own name. This had to be Horegan's grand daughter, the fast runner, the Protector candidate, the one who would have returned to find her parents, possibly her whole family dead if Fox hadn't intervened, just as she'd once told him. She was agile, she was beautiful, she was… no older than that kit he'd patched up. Sixteen, seventeen at most.

That meant three things. One, Beltino's invention had not sent him across the galaxy in zero time, but in negative time. Cornerian physics said time travel was possible, but not achievable with current technology. However, it looked like Cornerian physics needed a major overhaul. Second, whatever happened, or was going to happen to destroy this place would happen in the next year to year and a half, Cornerian time. Third, he'd lost Krystal again, even as he'd found her.

He was, quite literally, old enough to be her father. Plus, she didn't know him at all. Maybe she wouldn't ever get to know him, or rather this younger self, if he managed to stop Cerinia from being destroyed. After all, what reason would she have to travel to Sauria if her home world survived. And that could doom Sauria, and possibly the Lylat system, because without her staff…

He chopped off his thoughts as two other figures landed on the road way. They didn't require the anchor line, instead jumping from the deck above and arresting their descent with jet boosts from their staffs. Both wore knee length tan cloaks that billowed as they landed, both had diadems upon their foreheads, and both had the white markings that elder Krystal had worn. In all other ways, they were completely different from each other, and the blue vixen.

One was a mighty female tiger, easily two standard metres tall and looking as if she could tear a sheet of hull metal in half without straining. The halter top and kirtle she wore did little more to hide her fur than the arm and leg bracers she sported. The fur in question, between the ebony stripes that patterned it, was a brilliant green. Her tail carried several rings of silver or platinum.

The other was a much shorter, older male ursinoid, maybe Slippy's height, but he carried himself with a grace and authority that made him seem at least as tall as his compatriot. His fur was not the deep orange of Fox's own, but a more brilliant, solid crimson, shot with a white pattern on face, ears and presumably torso. He wore a knee length tunic, loosely belted with a length of rope. Though there were none in Lylat, Fox had seen pictures of similar ursines, and mentally classed it as a smaller version of a panda.

The caravan had halted, and the members of the Teraso clan were spilling out. Amongst them were Sorako and her parents, and Kurisutaru a.k.a Krystal naturally headed for them. There was a four way group hug, focussing on the bound tailed vixen, and then a worried question. He couldn't hear, but it was obvious she'd missed Arera. Sorako was the one to smile and respond, pointing at him.

She turned to look, and their eyes met, just for a moment. How well he knew that look, the politely questioning one that had been common those first few weeks on the Great Fox. But there was no recognition there, and it hurt more than he could express. He saw her react to that spike of emotion, and immediately clamped down on his feelings.

The tigress strode over to the lead wagon, ignoring the happy reunion, a frown on her features. She asked in a short tone, "What is this? You are the Teraso trading caravan, I assume?"

The old blue fox sitting ahead of him gave a slight bow. "You assume correctly, Protector. I am Horegan, leader of this caravan."

"We were told you were under attack by those green-skin creatures!" she continued, seemingly unaware of her own veridian hue. "And yet we find you riding along as if nothing had happened. Was that fox-girl wasting our time?"

"No Protector, it was true, almost two dozen of them, and many of my family have the scars to show it." He waved a paw to the assembled foxes, which included the walking wounded. "But before they overwhelmed us, help arrived from another source."

Fox decided that was his entrance cue. He jumped down from behind the buckboard, landing lightly by the tigress. This only reinforced her height advantage, which put her a head above him. "That would be me."

"A red fox?" The feline fighter sounded confused, and annoyed. "You are supposed to have taken down an entire raiding party?"

"Nope, I only accounted for about… sixteen. The others dealt with the rest." Great, the first other Protector he met, and she was clearly on a fuse so short you'd burn your fingers.

Suddenly her eyes lighted on the staff slotted in behind his pack, and she stepped back, bringing her weapon into firing position. "Where did you get that!"

Fox was ready to dive to the side if she fired, but for now he stood his ground and stared her right in the eyes. "I found it abandoned, and picked it up. And it works for me. Now get that pointy stick out of my face, and cool your tail off before I use it to toss you in the river!" People sticking weapons in his face always brought out the worst in him.

"Why you little…"

"Enough!" The bear spoke in a deep vice, at odds with is size. "Ema, calmly. Centre yourself, and reach out your mind. I sense no deception here. Feel the relief, the joy instead."

The tigress visibly restrained herself, stepping back. "Sorry, Master." She took a deep gusty breath, but still gave Fox a glare of doom. "I thought at last we might get a lead on these scaly scum-wads!"

"The fact that the caravan is safe is more important." The red panda stepped up beside her. "Forgive my over-enthusiastic student Master Horegan. I am Master Ti Li Fei of the Northern temple, and this is Protector Ema Raured. We were on patrol over this sector when your grand daughter came across us. We rushed to help of course, but I am glad it was not needed."

He turned to Fox, who felt a lot more uncertain under this creature's gaze. Those eyes looked like they could see right through him. "I too would like to know how you acquired that staff. I know of none missing from any temple, and while I sense the power in you, and that you can indeed connect with the staff, and that you have some skill, you clearly have no formal training with it, or with your own abilities."

Fox put his hand to the back of his head. "It was more an on the job kind of thing. It got me through a lot of stuff when I had no other weapon. The whole story is kinda long and complicated, and won't make sense without a lot of other stuff. I promised to tell everyone the full story when we camped for the night, and I will."

The panda nodded. "I await it with eagerness."

"Master, you aren't just going to let him keep it? He doesn't have the symbols of proof, and he can't have been through the trials…"

The panda stilled her speech with a paw wave. "There are many trials in life, not all of them known beforehand. And the true symbols that mark a Protector are not in the fur, but in the spirit. I sense an unusual power here, and a possible convergence of destinies."

"That sounds ominous." stated Fox. Could this guy tell him more about these powers he was supposed to have? If he could… well, if the task he had to do was for real, he'd need all the help he could get.

"Not necessarily. The future is made by our decisions, not set in stone. That is why it is so hard to see, even for one who has the vision." The panda didn't ask a question, but it was there anyway. Oh yeah, this guy had Fox read like a cheap data-pad.

He sighed. "Yeah, I get hunches, little more than knowing when to duck most of the time. If that's this 'power of the mind' I've been hearing about, I clearly got the bargain bin special."

"On the contrary, foresight is one of the rarest abilities a mind can have, and one of the most difficult to master. It shows impressive will that you could use it at all."

Fox pondered this nugget of information, and Horegan spoke. He'd clearly waited for a lull in the conversation. "If I remember, there is a suitable camping place only two ri ahead. We should reach it well before nightfall, if we start now. Master Ti, Protector Raured, there should be a place to land your sky-ship."

"Then let us go. These old bones need their rest." The fact that the elderly panda might be exaggerating just a bit came from the way he effortlessly boosted his way back up to the deck of the sky-ship, the tigress following.

Horegan got the foxes back in their wagons, and the convoy started off once more, now shadowed by the Protector sky-ship.

**Authors Notes:** Now things get interesting. A note on languages: Yes, I decided Cerinian is Japanese, and why not? There are also some Japanese elements to the culture, but it's not going to be a straight knock off of Edo era Japan. As for 'Saurian'… you should have figured out the punch-line from the hints. Finally, Cornerian isn't English as far as I'm concerned. I just use it as Fox's base language.


	6. A Meeting of Minds

**Mission 6 - A meeting of minds**

Fox hadn't gone back to sleep when the convoy moved off, but he had gone back into the cargo area of the wagon. He had his PDA out, and was putting together the background information and images he'd need when he gave them the full story, or at least as much of it as he figured they could handle.

He was an old hand at creating presentations, having put together endless numbers of briefings and after battle reports in his time as a mercenary. His PDA was loaded with a copy of the best presentation software available, PowerCube ViewMaster, able to take full advantage of holo-interface technology, and able to embed almost any other data format.

He did notice when the wagon train stopped, and checked the inertial navigator on his PDA (while it had Planetary Positioning software, he didn't always operate on planets with a satellite nav-net to hook into). It showed they'd come about 8 standard kilometres since they met the Protector sky-ship, and 25 skm from his landing site. Two 'ri' Horegan had said, so a 'ri' must be about 4 skm.

He checked the times too. His PDA was set to Lylat System Time, a.k.a Corneria Prime Meridian, and it was just about to flip over from 23:59:59 to all zeroes. That explained why he still felt a bit disconnected, since the Great Fox II was also running on LST when he'd left that morning. Of course, in the present circumstances, that figure was about as useful as a snorkel on a space suit.

Fortunately any interplanetary traveller had other options. His PDA was also running two instances of Timekeeper in background. One was a 360 part 'day' set to the orbital period of his Arwing, synchronised so it would be zero when the craft was right overhead. The other was set to the local Cerinian planetary rotation, and running a scaled 24 hour clock, zeroed from when he'd landed. He'd reconfigure when he had time to ask about the local timekeeping. Mechanical clocks should be well within their abilities.

He turned to the front of the wagon and asked, "We're at the camp-site? Anything I can do?" Then he shook his head, put on the headset he'd laid by his sleeping roll, and repeated the question.

Horegan responded easily. "Thank you, but no. We will take care of setting up the camp. With three such distinguished guests my people will want everything to be at it's best."

The cargo wagon had a boxy, trapezoid framework over it's top, supporting a heavy fabric covering. Other than the shape and the fact it was pulled by giant beetles, it would not have looked out of place in Earth's historical 'wild west'. The flaps at each end hung down but were not tied, so Fox had no trouble crawling across the boxes to the back and poking his head out to see their camp site.

He found his muzzle less than an inch away from another, and clear eyes of green stared right into bright eyes of sky blue. Krystal and Fox froze for a moment, her standing behind the cart, him looking out, then they both drew back.

"Ahh! I mean… uh…", Fox slammed down the barriers on the flood of emotions he'd felt in that brief eternity, hoping he hadn't leaked anything important.

"I came to thank you for protecting my family and saving my little sister's life… and I think I just did, so I'll go now!" The blue vixen raced through the last bit, then turned to go.

Yup, he'd leaked like a meteor damaged freighter. "Wait!" Fox jumped down from the cart, but made no move towards her. "Let me explain… Dang, this is awkward!"

Something in his voice, or possibly his public thoughts made her stop and turn back. "I'd say so! It isn't every day a person I've never met before recognises me at a distance, and then falls in love with me as soon as we're face to face!"

"Oh boy…" With a telepath, tell the truth, the short, short version at least, was the only possible course of action. "You're the spitting image of someone I once knew very well."

Her puzzled expression didn't detract from her beauty. "I wasn't spitting…"

Fox quickly said, "Sorry, that's a phrase from my own language, guess it doesn't translate right. I mean you look exactly like her. We fought side by side, and were very close friends for a time, and I'd half hoped to be more. My head knows you aren't her…" And he knew this to be the truth, because this Krystal hadn't gone through all the things that would make her the woman who'd joined Team Star Fox. "… but when you suddenly appeared like that, my… heart didn't.

"I know it must sound bizarre to you, but it's just as weird for me, meeting someone who I'd never thought I'd see again." Krystal could sense the emotional ache that thought still caused. "Except it isn't, and you don't know me. Uh… Look, could we start over?"

She appeared to consider this, then made a decision. "Alright. I'm Kurisutaru."

"Fox McCloud." He held out a hand, and after a moment, she shook it. "Sorry again for the confusion."

She gave him the first smile she'd directed at him for the entire conversation. Fortunately he was prepared this time to keep the memories it evoked under control. "And I apologise for over-reacting."

"Don't think you did at that. After all, you don't know me from any-fox." He shrugged, reminding himself that this was not _his_ Krystal, and trying to do it privately. But he couldn't do that without at least thinking of the version who'd captured his heart without realising it.

Krystal cocked her head slightly. "You really did love her, didn't you?"

Since the fox was pretty thoroughly out of the bag, Fox saw no reason to hide it. "Yeah. More than... well, I'd have done anything to protect her…" He sighed. "In fact, that's why I lost her. There were just the two of us, which mean missions were more dangerous. I tried to take her off active duty… and she wouldn't accept it. She left instead."

Krystal was frowning again. "You sound like my father. He doesn't want me to try out as a Protector. He says he loves me, and that he's only trying to protect me, but I can tell it's more than that, though he never wants to explain. If he really loved me, he'd let me do what I think is right. Last night, even tried to order me not to, as head of our family. If he really loved me, would he have threatened to disown me?"

She was getting up steam and it was clear this was an argument she'd played out before. "But I'm of age, I can take care of myself! I don't care if he does make good on his threat! Protecting others has always been what I wanted to do, and as a Protector I have the chance to make a difference! If I choose to put my life on the line to do so, that's _my_ decision!"

Fox was having sudden large amounts of epiphany. If that had been how things stood before… without him to prevent her fathers death, her last words would have been what sounded like a terrible argument. No wonder the Krystal he knew had reacted so badly. Seeing it from a different angle, an outside perspective, also altered his perception of the situation.

This time he could empathise with her desire to make a difference, and her determination to do whatever it took, unclouded, mostly by his own feelings. After all, the same things had motivated him when he quit the Academy and re-started Star Fox. How would he feel if the situation had been reversed, if someone back then, someone he trusted, made him choose between love and his beliefs. He'd have felt so betrayed… Well, he had a second chance, of sorts. This time, he was going to do it right.

"Whoa! If you say so." He held up his hands in a 'stop' gesture. "It's not like I have any say in it, anyway. All I'll say is, that particular path isn't something you choose lightly. It's a tough, nasty job, and you'll need a lot of guts and luck to see it through. And I know what I'm talking about!"

"That's… honest." Krystal had sensed his realisation, though the details had been part of his more private thoughts, but she had the general gist that he'd decided he'd been wrong. His words weren't an attempt to dissuade her, or not so much, as an attempt to make sure she knew what she was getting into. The last phrase carried the feeling of personal remembrance, both bad and good. She continued, "But I'm going into this with my eyes wide open. I will succeed in the Trials, and I will become a Protector. And I'll take the bad with the good."

Fox nodded. "I believe you will. You got those Protectors here pretty darned sharpish."

His complement didn't have the desired effect. The blue vixen just hung her head. "From what I've heard, it wouldn't have been fast enough. I… My run was pointless! If you hadn't been there, Arera would have died for certain, and maybe none of the others would be alive…"

Fox frowned. "You just said you'd deal with what happens. Don't sell yourself or your people short! As I told your grandfather, they were putting up a decent defence against the Sharpclaws. And I don't have to be a telepath to figure out you're reckoning you'd have been more use in that skirmish line."

At his sharp tone, she looked up and nodded, a bit uncertainly.

"Well, don't! It's easy for others to second guess you, for you to second guess yourself after the fact. When you ran for help, you were making the best decision you could at the time, based on what you knew. Sometimes that's all you _can_ do. Save your regrets for when you make a genuine mistake. And you can't know how things would have turned out. Maybe the caravan could have held out long enough, it's not like the Sharpclaws are the universe's greatest tacticians."

"You don't really believe that. I can tell." Krystal was looking right at him, and it felt like that gaze was travelling inside.

He growled softly, telepathy could be a pain sometimes. "Okay, maybe not. Just be glad you never had to find out! It doesn't diminish what you, or they, did. In fact, I can respect them all the more for it. It's far harder to face probable defeat and still keep on slugging, than when you reckon you've got a decent chance of winning.

"I fight for a living, and I know that sometimes it isn't even a choice between victory and survival, but between survival and minimising the effects of defeat." His mind flashed back to Miyu for a second. "It's never happened to me personally, but I've lost a good friend that way. I've had to accept it. Finding that same level of courage in people who aren't warriors, that impresses me. And you can tell I _do_ believe that!"

He wasn't talking to a girl any more, he was encouraging a comrade, and she was. Even though they'd never fought together, she was like him, someone who could no more refuse to help than a meteor could refuse to fall into a gravity well. So he'd provide her with the best emotional first aid he could, not because of who she was, but because she deserved to think better of herself than she did. He didn't consciously realise it, but he was thinking in his old manner as a team leader.

"And the same applies to the person who went off into the unknown, not knowing if there were other Sharpclaw raiding parties out there, and brought back the people she needed." Trying to lighten the tone a little, with a grin he added, "Even if Ms Tiger wanted to pull my head off and spit down my neck."

"Tiger… oh, you mean Protector Raured? Tora-jin do tend to be short tempered and fierce. I was surprised to find one was a Protector. I sensed she was looking forward to a fight, and took out her disappointment on you. You didn't seem to be worried though."

"After the level of stuff I've been through in the last few years, I figure my 'scare' reflex is all used up." He put a hand to his forehead, staring off into the distance. "Oh, that sounded good and modest!"

Krystal actually giggled at the disgust in his tone, and the self deprecation showing in his public thoughts. She also noticed a change to a more positive emotion at her laugh.

"Now that's more like it!" Fox said approvingly. "You've got a nice laugh. You should do it more often."

She smiled at the complement. "I haven't had much reason today, until now."

"Uh… thanks… I think…" He was looking off to one side in a parody of thought, and his mind showed it was a mock attempt at deciding whether he'd just been complemented or insulted. This made her giggle again.

Sorako came up to the pair. "C'mon sis! Mom says she needs your help too. We're going to prepare a feast that will knock everyone's sandals off!" She grabbed on the other vixen's paw. "Sorry, Pr… Fox, we have to go!"

Krystal started to follow then turned back and said. "Thank you again, for everything. It was nice meeting you." She was surprised to find she now meant it. She turned back to Sorako. "So who's watching Arera?"

"Dad. Right now he'd just be in the way…" The two girls strode off, and Fox couldn't help admire the way their tails swayed as they walked. Then he forced his gaze away, and got back to doing the presentation.

Four 'home' caravans had been moved into a semi-circle and a sheet hung above them to form a sort of open sided room between them. Cooking equipment and work tables had been fetched out, and several fires were going. Cooks of both genders were preparing the feat under the eagle, or rather vulpine eye of the girls' mother.

The centrepiece was going to be the massive land-prawn brought in by one of the hunting parties, sent out to search for additional food after the Protectors arrived, and to scout for any more ambushes. This creature, to Earthly eyes would look like some hybrid of a shrimp and a scorpion, if the hybrid were the size of a lion.

The back plates had been separated, the meat and muscle doused with sauces and spices while still attached to the inside of the chitinous segments. They were already laid out on a fire, each plate acting as it's own cooking tray. The meat would be tender and delicious, shot through with rich, clear juices and flavoured with spices when it was done.

The tail had been split open and the tender aromatic meat was being shredded and cooked. It would be served with un-leavened flexible pancakes and thin strips of vegetable, and a deep sweet tangy sauce. The belly flesh, tougher than the rest had been diced, and boiled with puk puk eggs, water-leaf, and thick wheat noodles. It would thicken into a clear dense broth, thick with soft noodles.

Fish were being cleaned and grilled, a big pot of rice was cooking, leather casks of loquat and juices were cooling in water buckets, sauces, sides and sweets were being prepared. One of their aunts was preparing fish shaped, sweet berry pastries, best when still molten hot from the oven, and honeyed seed cakes. The two girls were set to cleaning and prepping vegetables, both as sides and also to be dipped in batter and deep fried.

While they were both concentrating on their work, they were both telepaths. A whisper to order their thoughts was as good as a shout even in the hectic kitchen, which left them free to talk. Their thoughts were clearly discernible to each other, like notes stuck on their foreheads. Of course, neither had to be _looking_ at the other, any more than someone needed to be looking to listen to a conversation or smell a perfume.

"So, what did you think of him, little sis?" Sorako asked eagerly, in Nihon. The emotions of her underlying mental state, the 'colours' of her mind glow, indicated eagerness and a yen to find out.

"Funny, but a bit odd at first." Krystal replied in the same language. Her mind glow was more subdued, with ambivalent hues.

"Not the way I'd have described him!" exclaimed her older sister. "How about a total rice cracker? Did you notice the way he moves, or the muscles under that fur, and that tail… Oh, I wouldn't mind running my fingers through that!"

Krystal could see the imagery ghosting across the edges of her sisters mind. "I wouldn't have believed you'd fall for a nice coat of fur, though that orange colour makes him look exotic, I'll admit. And he _is_ quite good looking, mature, but in a good way…" She was more reserved than her sister, but there was no uncertainty or prevarication when two telepaths, at least telepaths who'd been together since infancy, talked. "Alright, you win. He is rather a dish, isn't he?"

Sorako shook her head. "It wasn't just that that had my tail in a twitch. He cares, really cares, even about people he's just met. How rare is that in a guy?"

"Not that uncommon, at least when it's girls like you or me." Krystal responded dryly. Then she considered the guy in question. "Actually, you're right. He _was_ trying to make a good impression, but it wasn't for the usual reason. He isn't one of those creeps you find coming around the caravan thinking that just because we're traders, _everything's_ for sale."

"They aren't the ones that annoy me, it's the ones who feel we're like a free gift." Sorako shuddered. "Some of the thoughts I've picked up…"

"I didn't sense anything like that, apart from that initial thing…"

"Oh?" Sorako's ears twitched, "Tell me more…"

"Apparently I look like an old friend of his…" Sorako could sense things playing out in her sisters memories as they surfaced.

Sorako gave a mock sniff. "Hmmph! Some girls have all the luck! Love at first sight, no less."

"Embarrassment at first sight, rather." Krystal said, in response to her sister's sally. "Though I don't know who was more embarrassed, me or him."

"With something like that happening, I can see where the weird came from. I got that feeling of loss from him when he touched on the people he'd never see again." Sensing her sisters curiosity, she amplified. "You didn't know? He came here by sky-ship…" and in Krystal's mind, an image appeared of the Arwing II taking off. "… but it can't get him home again.

"I get the feeling he's cut off from everything he ever knew, all his friends, his family. He's got plenty of reason to feel sorry for himself, but he still took the time to consider _my_ feelings. He was worried about that kick I took, he remembered, despite having been in his own fight at the time. He also let me come along to see his ship, even though I sensed, after I'd asked, that he'd rather have gone alone to sort out his thoughts."

Krystal got fleeting impressions of those events as Sorako thought of them. "I didn't know… no wonder he reacted so strongly when he saw someone familiar. I should have been nicer. Especially after he did something good for me."

"Once again, I say 'Oh?' C'mon, tell big sis the juicy details." Sorako teased, knowing from Krystal's mind glow that it wasn't like that. It coloured with embarrassment right on cue.

"Sora-chan! I didn't… well he didn't… Look you know the fuss dad has been making about me going for a Protector slot? It turns out he had a similar argument with that girl I look like, but unlike dad, he was willing to admit he was wrong. On top of that, I guess I was feeling a bit sorry for myself. After all, you know what cousin Meru was saying, that I went for help because I didn't have the guts to fight."

Sorako snorted, carefully not looking at another female fox on the other side of the kitchen, her head fur in twin hoops and a stormy expression. The vixen in question was her age, and stirring the pot of rice with unnecessary force.

"That flat muzzled, loop haired, raise-tail! She was in back, 'taking care of the young ones'! Not that she'd have been any use in the defence anyway. She's just jealous of the attention you're getting as the one going for a Protector slot. Pay her no mind, no-one else does. It's probably why she doesn't have any to speak of, at least above her waist!"

Krystal giggled at her sisters acerbic comment. "Thanks. It was just that and the fact that by the time I got back everything was settled… well, I wanted to prove I could make a difference, convince dad and the other doubters that I could do this. I felt I'd messed up, and Fox convinced me otherwise. I think he's more than just a solo warrior. There was the sense he'd led others, and he even said as much."

"I got that impression too. Not that he isn't a great warrior too. Actually, I was a bit nervous about approaching him right at the start. I sort of acted a bit fluff-brained."

"Nervous?" Krystal glanced up from her work. "He didn't seem _that_ intimidating."

"When he was fighting, he was different." Sorako looked back into her sisters eyes, and started sharing her memories fully. Krystal began to understand. Even between telepaths, mind communication was like speech, with the occasional sense image. But Krystal and Sorako were sisters, and had grown up with each other. With effort, they could form a deeper rapport. Both of them stopped chopping vegetables, for fear of loosing fingers.

To their way of visualising it, a normal mind was like a festival lantern, a conscious being anyway, by comparison animals were just simple points of light. At the core was the light itself, brighter or dimmer depending both on the strength of mind, though not necessarily intelligence, and how active it was. Emotions were like colours added to the matrix.

Public thoughts were ofuda or notes, pinned to the outside of the paper shade, and so easily read by one who could see them. Private thoughts were papers attached to the inside, unreadable but visible as silhouettes that gave something of their shape. And of course, the arrangement was always changing as different things came to the fore. Of course, two telepaths could pass notes to each other, more or less.

But now Krystal was seeing Sorako's memories from her point of view, not just the images, but the gestalt of sight and sound and scent and movement and over it all, the impinging of other mind glows upon her. Guard, turn, dodge, parry, spin, thrust! The looming green hulk of a Sharpclaw warrior was before her, reaving at her with his axe, and most of her attention was devoted to not getting filleted, and trying to find a way past it's guarding shield with her blade.

The smell of blood and sweat and fear was hot in her (elder sister's) nostrils, and to either side she could sense the mind glows of her neighbouring foxes, the 'colours' of fear mixed with anger and resolve, 'shining' brightly as they tried to stay alive and defend themselves. Extraneous thoughts flitted across the outer surface of their minds, but she had no chance to read them. One fox two places down took a slice, and the mind was washed with the hue of pain.

The mind of the Sharpclaw was 'wrong'. Rather than a lantern, it was like a cruel dagger of dark metal, and the interior glow was that of a cooling billet of iron. Vague thought shapes flickered inside it, but nothing beyond the surface, so it gave her no advantage to anticipating it's next strike. It didn't even seem properly sentient, something between the thoughtless but focussed glow of a non-sentient predator, and the dull mind-glow of a lack-wit.

She was tiring, and didn't know if she could keep going too much longer. She was so focussed on it, that she didn't notice the change in emotional tone around her for a few seconds. Her fellow defenders showed new tints in their mind glows, of relief and hope… A flash of red, and the Sharpclaw on her right went down. She got only a confused impression of a new warrior, and a glowing whiteness of mind glow, before she was forced to deflect a vicious swipe that almost disarmed her.

The Sharpclaw clearly felt it had a breathing space, if you could ascribe thought that complex to it. It moved to defend itself from the new direction, and she saw an opening. Her blade dove in, not striking cleanly, but piercing the scaled green skin of the upper arm above it's round shield and biting deep. She felt a surge of joy, of victory…

Without warning it struck out with one leg, kicking off her with it's claws driving beneath the fur and into the meat of her leg. Krystal almost recoiled from the thought stream as she felt the pain hit but forced herself to maintain the rapport. She staggered back, tripping and landing on her tail, her long knife raised in an effort to protect her while prone. In the real and present, her body swayed as her legs weakened for a moment in sympathy.

Her defence was not needed, even as she looked for it, the Sharpclaw was being iced. A Protector's staff! And in the hands of… It was Sorako's first good look at her saviour, and Krystal's, at Fox in action. And what action it was! It was as if his moves were choreographed, he seemed to know without looking about the creature behind him, thrusting behind him then turning and beating it down, then flinging it like a bale of rice when it jumped for him.

The most surprising thing was his mind glow. It was also like a sword, but one forged of sunlight. This was not the semi-mindless glow of the monsters, but a dedicated, focussed mind, something she'd previously seen only when watching a master craftsman at work and utterly absorbed in his task. Thoughts flashed across the surface of his mind too fast to read, but she gained the general martial tone. There were no extraneous thoughts, just dedicated purpose, both in thought and in emotion.

Three more engaged him, but it was as if they were fighting smoke. His mind showed satisfaction at drawing them away from the other defenders, even pleasure that his efforts were rewarded, and he said something in an incomprehensible language, though the thought behind it stood clear beyond the surface of his mind, the first time she'd seen a though emerge beyond that glowing sword surface. "You guys are going to quake in your boots…." Then he corrected himself, seeing only ankle bracers.

He used the staff to shake the ground beneath them, and his surface mind approved of the pun. He vaulted over onto one, quickly dispatching it, and then lit into the others like some sort of machine, downing them. There was a moment coloured with pain as one got a hit in, but it only lasted an instant before the colour was leached away, subsumed into the brilliant sword form of his mind.

She didn't see the end of his fight, because at that point she was embroiled in her own. One of the remaining Sharpclaw dived through the hole she had left behind, and she had to roll to avoid being trampled, causing a wrenching agony in her injured leg. She still had her long knife, and even though her vision was blurred from the pain she swung it at the back of the thing's legs as it passed, ham-stringing it. It measured it's length on the ground for a few seconds, before Yareru and her uncle Doma jumped on it and stabbed it to death.

Krystal came out of the communion and blinked a couple of times. "Oh my… It doesn't seem possible that was the guy I met could be like that."

There had been no fear, none of the uncertainty she'd felt when he'd first met her. How much fighting must he have been a part of for his attitude to become that… implacable? He hadn't taken any pleasure in the killing itself, but neither was there any remorse. All he'd appeared to feel was necessity, a protective feeling about the caravan and a pride in a job well done. However, it was clearer than ever that he really did know what he was talking about.

"You can see now why I was a bit nervous of causing offence, but when I went up to him, he was different, nicer. Not that I felt anything nasty about him in battle, but it was just that… detachment. I expected him to be aloof, or even demanding. It's like he has this other self he changes into when he fights."

"Maybe he has to, to do the job. As you said, he cares, but he can lock it away and focus on the task at hand. I noticed how brave you were too. And you managed to get that one in the end."

Sorako shook her head. "I'd never been so scared and hopeless in my whole life! And I got a lucky shot in while that monster was distracted, both times."

"You were frightened, feeling defeated and injured, and you still kept fighting. That's real bravery. Fox said as much."

"'Fox said'? Sounds like he made quite an impression." Sorako grinned.

Krystal focussed furiously on shredding a daikon with rather more effort than needed. "Well, he certainly knows what he's talking about. You said he was staying with us until we get to Nihon? Maybe he can help me train up for the trials."

"Are you sure that's all you're interested in learning? But you may not have the chance. That Master Protector is intrigued by him, and is half minded to bring him to the Protector council. After all, he has Protector skills but has never done the Trials." Sorako dropped this in casually.

"What? But how…" There was surprise, and a little disappointment in Krystal's reaction.

"I caught some fringe thoughts as he passed by." Sorako shrugged.

"You managed to mind-snoop a Master Protector without him noticing?" Krystal was incredulous.

The other fox girl sniggered, "Sis, he's forgotten more about mind powers than I'll ever learn! He must know I caught those thoughts, but didn't mind me seeing them."

Krystal felt oddly let down. Her grandfather and mother were happy to let her try for Protector, and both Sorako and Arera supported her, but with Fox for the first time she'd felt there was someone who could fully understand _why_ she had to.

Sorako said, quietly and more seriously. "You know, Kuri-chan, there is a solution. Ask Master Ti if you can travel with them to the Ancient Temple in Nihon. Getting there early gives you extra time to train before the Trials, and it's likely that Fox will be doing the same. Also it will get you away from dad and the other doubters. Take down two flutter-flies with the same rock."

"That's… a great idea! But sis, you said you were interested in Fox too. Why are you helping me?"

The elder sister's tail twitched and she continued in a serious vein. "Kuri-chan, I'm a homebody, not an adventurous type like you and Arera. Whereas I don't think anyone will get him to stand still short of nailing his tail to the ground. It's a shame, but it wouldn't work." Then she giggled, unable to keep the serious pose. "Anyway, I thought you were only interested in his _martial_ arts."

"Sis! Stop kidding around!" This last was spoken out loud, and attracted the attention of their mother. She might not be formally telepathic, but she was a mother, and knew her girls.

"If you two have finished chatting about Protector McCloud's tail, there are still vegetables to chop!"

There was laughter from all around, but for the most part it was friendly. Both girls purpled furiously, tails drooping, and got on with the slicing and dicing.

**Authors Notes:** Wow! That was a hard chapter to write. Writing that first meeting, and trying to get a handle on Krystal's character… after all she doesn't really get _that_ many lines of dialogue in the source material, and doesn't have any real catch phrases to hang her personality on. Plus I had to adjust for the regression in age, she isn't as experienced or as self confident as the canon Krystal who's been places and done things.

BTW, despite the fact her name in Nihon (Japanese) pronunciation is 'Kurisutairu' I've kept her as Krystal in the descriptive test because that's how people will likely think of her. Incidentally '-chan' is a suffix for personal names in Japanese, either as a diminutive or indicating a close friend. Almost always used by girls or young children. Other than that, for which there isn't really an English equivalent, I didn't use actual Japanese.

Writing the conversation between the sisters was as hard, I've never been a teen-aged girl, let alone a telepathic anthro fox. (incidentally, if anyone can turn me into a telepathic fox anthro you can name your own price ). My source material comes entirely from shojo manga. Hopefully I haven't mangled things too badly.

One other thing, the food. The tail meat pancakes were inspired by crispy duck pancakes with Hoi sin sauce (Chinese I know, but I may drag in a couple of things from China anyway, since this is more a big continent than a set of islands), and the noodle soup is ramen. The battered vegetables are tempura, and the fish shaped pastries are tai-yaki.

As always, please let me know what you think. On this chapter more than most I need the feedback to make sure I'm making sense.


	7. Starfox 101

**Mission 7 - Star Fox 101**

The evening was well advanced before the food was ready, and in that time, the home wagons and not a few of the cargo wagons had been formed into a circle around a central open area. Dozens of paper lanterns were hung from their eves, providing illumination, for since the evening still held some of the warmth of the day, there was no fire other than the cooking ones. The sky above was almost cloudless, and even through the lamplight, the brighter stars and planets could be seen in the navy blue sky.

Everyone, including Fox and the two Protectors were gathered within the circle of light, sitting on boxes or sheets or whatever came to hand. Even Arera was there, having woken and been more or less carried out in a makeshift sedan chair. Her new wrist ornament had created a stir, but it seemed people had more or less accepted that Fox had some weird but harmless, cool things.

Horegan was standing at one edge of the circle, opposite the kitchen area and it's laid out wooden and chitin platters of food. He'd taken the time to dress in a bright full length robe, overlapping at the front and with embroidered pictures of mountains and trees upon it. He smiled at the assembled company, and showing little of his age, spoke out, in Saurian.

"I'll keep this short, because I suspect some of you will gnaw someone's leg off if you don't get to the food soon." He smiled, and a chuckle ran through the assembly. He then continued more seriously.

"This is our thanksgiving for the survival of our caravan, and all of our people. It also honours each and every one of you for your part in that survival. Let us welcome our guests and new friends, and ask them to join us in our joy, and our celebration.

"Let us thank the Ancients, who set the order of our world, our ancestors and the spirits of this land, for they were surely watching over us in our time of need, and our friends and families, each of whom played a part in ensuring no-one would join our ancestors before their time, and preparing this party. And of course, we must thank our new friend, Pro… Mister McCloud, who played such a great part in our deliverance."

Several people had been delegated as servers, and carried around wooden cups, and jugs of something to put in them, loquat for the adults, juice for the kids, or water for anyone.

Horegan waited for everyone to get their fill, then called out, "The Ancients, the Ancestors, family and friends!"

"The Ancients, the Ancestors, Family and Friends!" the assembled foxes chorused, cups held high, then drank.

Horegan waited a second for the toast to die away, then, said. "And now, let's eat!"

Despite the fact that everyone was clearly hungry, Fox and the two Protectors were given first choice from the buffet table. Fox himself filled up a wooden platter with various delicacies, including several slices of the delicious smelling back meat, and a couple of pancakes, and the still hot tempura pieces. Master Ti selected a few small titbits and had managed to arrange pot of herbal tea. Protector Raured managed to acquire one entire back plate of meat.

Then it became something of a semi-orderly free-for all. People filled plates on behalf of Arera and the other ones who were better off not moving around, though hers was mainly the thick ramen, as she wasn't allowed much solid food yet. Everyone else went back for seconds.

There was talking and laughter as the meal went on, and several people came up to meet and thank Fox personally. It seemed that the earlier reticence by most of the caravan members had been purely politeness in not disturbing him when he was recovering from the fight. He stuck to the juice despite many offers of stronger drinks, because he had a job left to do, and he needed a clear head.

As the feast ran down to 'filling in the corners', he went over to Horegan and spoke to him for a few moments. The elderly fox went back to the place he'd spoken from before, and called for attention.

"Everyone, Mister McCloud would like to talk to you. While he explained to me earlier that he came from a distant land, and that he was unable to return, he refused to go into detail at the time. He's now ready to explain in full, and wants to do so to everyone at once."

There were whistles and cheers as Fox moved to stand where Horegan had, followed by a respectful silence when he put up a hand. His normal voice could be clearly heard across the far side of the circle, due to the sono-projector elements of his headset in this case working as a set of speakers.

"Thank you, both for being so hospitable, and for listening. I promise you won't be disappointed. As you know from seeing my ship, and my equipment, my people have devices you don't, at least yet. As Horegan explained, I'm from far away, but I didn't want to explain until I could show you, as well as tell."

He triggered the remote projector module for his PDA, and it hovered out in front of him. It was top of the line unit, projecting a holo-image into a cylindrical volume of space up to a metre across and half again that deep. The active control volume formed in front of him, a translucent milky blue column containing three dimensional icons. There were gasps and exclamations of astonishment, but people were watching, and hanging on his every word.

He walked to one side of it, and reached in to grab one of the icons, squeezing to trigger it. It expanded out into a solid looking, metre square flat screen, showing a rotating picture of his Arwing II. "This device records sounds and images, and can display them to other people. My ship is also capable of recording images, and sending them to it. To prove they are real, here's the view from my ship as it took off."

The window controls were only projected in his direction, and he stroked a finger through the 'play' button. The scene changed to a forest clearing, which started dropping away after a few seconds. It was taken from just in front of the Arwing's nose, and was a wide angle forward view. It swept round, and travelled out over the trees, coming into view of the river, and the caravan as it had been. Many people were pointing and exclaiming as they saw this, and in many cases themselves, if only from a distance.

As the line of the horizon dipped slightly, due to the ship aligning itself for boosting to orbit, he started to speak again. "If your sky-ships have travelled high enough, you'll know the air starts to thin out as you go higher. Eventually it vanishes altogether, the void beyond it, what my people call 'outer space', is incredibly huge."

The viewpoint started to leap forward as the ship ascended. For the first thirty seconds, it accelerated to around a standard kilometre per second and stayed there, transiting the atmosphere layer at up to Mach four. Then it started to really boost, a further sixty seconds at ten Cornerian gravities, which was still less than ten percent of it's maximum thrust. At the end of this, it was over 90 standard kilometres high, well above the visible atmosphere, and travelling at orbital speeds. Fox talked over the sequence, which showed the forward view as the ship rose higher and higher, and faster and faster.

"Your world, Cerinia is one of many, and the stars you see in the night sky are suns like your own, but incredibly far away. They also have their own planets." He knew he was on fairly safe ground with that, because interrogating the translation matrix of his PDA showed Saurian, Ancient that is, had words for such things.

"And I come from one of them, a world that travels round another sun. I don't know where it is in your sky, only that it's invisible from here, because my people have built ships that can travel between stars, a million times the distances between the worlds of a single sun, and we have explored every star system visible from our world, and beyond.

"If they'd been here, even if they hadn't landed and made contact, they would have left a beacon in orbit, a device circling the world, that my ship would have detected." He shook his head. "So I know I'm beyond the range of my people's exploration."

The view from the Arwing's forward camera now showed the world from over 100 standard kilometres up, with a visible curvature to the horizon, and the blue halo of atmosphere edging it. Although normal eyes wouldn't be able to see the stars when in the full unfiltered sunlight of space, the camera could with the appropriate image filtering, and Fox had set it to do so.

He dismissed the picture of their world with the appropriate motions in the control area, and there were sighs of disappointment from much of the audience. He pulled up a local star map of the sector around Lylat, not a true navigational chart, but an three dimensional illustration of a region of space about 80 parsecs across, dotted with star systems.

"There are giant stars and clusters that are visible over much greater distances, and which I could use to locate myself, given time, but my ship was only ever designed to travel between worlds travelling around the _same_ star, so I don't even have the charts or tools that could let me identify them. To give you an idea of the problem, this is the region my people have explored..."

He reached to each side of the map and pushed inwards, and it shrunk, compressing down to a barely visible dot on a circling spiral galaxy. "This is the area I might be in."

Ema tore herself away from the sight to speak with a frown. "You claim to have travelled between the stars? Only the Ancients had such powers!"

Fox shook his head. "Hey, I'm not trying to insult anyone's religion! If these Ancients are the ones I'm thinking of, they almost certainly could travel between the stars more easily than you'd walk down to the river to refill your canteen. And before I go any further, if they are the ones I'm thinking of, I learned of another name for them, begins with a 'Kra'. Is there some kind of taboo about saying it?"

Master Ti spoke. "You are polite to ask. The true name of the Ancients is not used lightly, it is believed that calling on them will distract them from the mighty task they left us to complete. So we avoid it, except with the proper ceremonies. They did teach our ancestors much of what you have said, of other worlds. There are ancient..." He paused to smile slightly at using that word, "... murals that show Sauria as a sphere, hanging in the sky."

He indicated the display. "However, though philosophers have proved it independently, I never expected to see the truth that our own world is a sphere with my own eyes. As for your claim to have travelled from another star, while, as my apprentice said only the Ancients had that power, they made no claim that no one else could."

Fox dipped his head in acknowledgement, and thanks for clearing that up. "Once I've finished my show and tell, I'd like to talk with you some more about Sauria, and why it's no longer in your sky." He had a lot of questions, and a few ideas of his own.

He also noticed that Baisu, who'd been at the front and hanging on every word, looked a bit down-cast. He thought he knew the reason, and resolved to do something about it later.

Oddly enough, it was Sorako who was the first to speak. "But if your sky-ship couldn't travel between stars…" it was clear the concept was giving her difficulty, "… how could you end up here? You said something about an accident before…"

Fox grinned. "I was hoping someone would ask that..." Then he remembered Sorako was a telepath, and grinned, a bit ruefully, "... which is probably why you asked it."

The sudden blush and look away indicated he might not be a telepath, but had still figured out what was going on in her mind. Fox pulled up a visual sequence from early in his ill fated last mission, using the third person viewpoint of his black box holo recorder. Alongside it ran a sequence showing the Beltino Gate over Corneria, opening to transit a group of freighters. There were some gasps of awe as they realised the size of the gate, and the larger ships, from the fact that the barely visible smaller vehicles around them were fighters like his Arwing.

"Good question. I was ferrying a new device, something that could transport ships far further than anything my people had, to a place where it could be tested. We already have larger versions... " He indicated the Beltino Gate, "But this one could be carried by a ship the size of mine."

"It was supposed to be inactive…" He shrugged, and fast forwarded the Arwing sequence to where it triggered. The image hashed in the last few seconds as the distortions from the energy exposure prevented accurate recording. But it showed the opening of the green lens before it failed.

"Obviously it wasn't. It activated and transported me at random to this star, fairly close to this world in fact, and destroyed itself in the process." He sighed.

"From what I know of it… not much that is, it should have destroyed my ship along with it, and without a destination it should have been far more likely to transport me somewhere between the stars where I'd never have found somewhere to land before my ship failed. I was unbelievably lucky to find Cerinia, but the way I ended up here means none of my people are likely to try looking for me, even if they knew where to start."

'Or when', he added, but as privately as possible, inside his own head. Which reminded him... "Those of you with mind powers can tell I'm telling the truth?" Actually, from his experience with his Krystal he knew that while they could only see his surface thoughts, they could tell whether he believed them without prying.

"Or that you believe you are." stated the younger Krystal.

"Which doesn't rule out the possibility I'm out of my gourd... crazy, that is." Fox finished for her. "Of course, most crazy people wouldn't be able to provide this kind of evidence. Like images of the world, and the star system I'm from."

He expanded another image which showed a topological map of the Lylat system, with several insets expanding views of planets, and scenes from them.

"I've already mentioned that my people have travelled between the planets of own star, Lylat, and other stars, for several centuries in fact. They've colonised empty worlds, and traded with inhabited ones. Now, cargo star-ships fly between worlds the way you guys travel between cities. Of course, there are always goons who think an easy way to make some money is to rob them, and despite their best efforts, the various Planetary Defence Forces can't convoy every freighter, hunt down every pirate and smuggler.

"I'm betting it's the same way here, unless Cerinia is so peaceful that the various City Watches and the Guardians out number the crooks..." He cocked an eyebrow at the two guardians, and even Ema had to shake her head ruefully.

The next part was taken from an advert for Team Star Fox, after the mission on Sauria, when they'd had the money, and publicity to relaunch themselves. He'd chosen that one specifically because he'd need to talk about Sauria, and he wouldn't be able to without talking about 'his' Krystal. The Star Fox anthem, actually a tribute piece written after the Venomian War, was playing in the background.

"So they need people like us. Team Star Fox. We took up the slack, convoying freighters, hunting down pirates, smugglers, terror mongers and general anti-social types. We based out of Corneria, the fourth planet of the Lylat system. While we were on a retainer to the Cornerian Defence Force, we were independent, able to take contracts with shipping companies, or whoever needed a dangerous job doing... for a price."

The advert was cycling through the crew members, and got gasps of surprise when Krystal was shown. He'd tweaked the image a bit with editing tools, but not much. Fox looked straight at the Krystal in front of him. "Now you know why I pretty much crashed and burned when I met you face to face. I'm still having trouble not feeling that you are the same person."

Since that was exactly what she felt from him, that she was the same person, and yet not the same, she believed him, not looking for any hidden meaning. The advert had moved on to showing the Star Fox vehicles, and 'clean' battle footage from his 'over the shoulder' battle recorder data.

"But how..." The question came from half a dozen people, in as many different ways.

Ema interrupted. "You fought for money?" It was clear from the tone of her voice that she wasn't impressed by that revelation.

Fox shook his head as the advert finished, flashing up a Star Fox 'tail' logo, and contact details.

"If I'd wanted to get rich, there were much easier and safer way than fighting for a living. I fought, because there were jobs that needed doing, people that needed protecting, that wouldn't be possible any other way." He wasn't about to get side tracked into his personal quest to take down Andross.

"Yes, I charged for my services, because a warrior has to eat, and buy and maintain his equipment, and kit like my Arwing and the Great Fox aren't cheap. But I never did it for the money, though I like to think I was an honest businessman, giving good value."

From the looks a couple of the Teraso clan were giving Ema, her sneering at crass commercialism hadn't gone down too well with them. Fox decided to save her.

"You guys were wondering about the Cerinian, the one that looks so much like Krystal. She ties into my visit to Sauria, and how I came to find out about Kr... the Ancients, among other things."

He closed down the travelogue sequence, and pulled up another.

To Master Ti he said, "You said you'd seen murals of Sauria, was it anything like this?"

The image was a projection of a view from the main cameras of the Great Fox, a sequence of dawn breaking over a restored Sauria, taken just after Fox had returned from destroying Andross, again.

There were gasps of amazement from some of the older foxes; it was clear that Master Ti wasn't the only one to have seen the murals. By now they'd seen enough images of planets from space to understand what they were seeing.

Master Ti responded, his normal calm demeanour momentarily deserting him. "Sauria... You really have been there! But how?"

Fox reached out and re-activated the three dimensional image of the Lylat system map. It zoomed out from the planetary scale, to show a star orbiting hundreds of times further out, and back in, focussed on the other star.

"Solar, the main sun of the Lylat system, has a distant companion star, Beta. It's smaller, at the bottom end of the sorts that can have habitable planets, and Sauria is the only planet circling it. There's a bunch of weird things about the place, but the inhabitants wanted to be left in peace, so few of our scientists... philosophers have studied it."

"In what way weird?" asked Krystal.

"It's small, really small for an inhabited planet, it's orbit is practically a perfect circle and it has no inclination... Your sun travels across the sky higher or lower at different times of the year, yes?" After a few seconds of messing with his control screen, he pulled up a standard animated diagram of a planet orbiting a sun, showing the axis of rotation at different times of year.

"Sauria doesn't have that. While it's possible for that to happen, the odds of both are ridiculous. Plus there's no other stuff around Beta, no planets or even rubble, apart from a debris ring around Sauria itself. I'm afraid you'll have to trust me that while it's possible for all those things to happen, the odds against it are huge. The day is really short too, about a tenth of the one here."

He got back onto his prepared presentation. "The inhabitants were of a number of different species." File footage of the various Saurian tribes appeared, some from recordings of the original explorers, some from Fox's own battle recorder. There were more gasps, and a few growls, as the Sharpclaw appeared. He pointed out the creatures as he talked about them.

"The Earthwalkers and the Cloudrunners were the most powerful tribes, at least when they were originally contacted, and they decided they wanted to be left alone. But the original explorers did leave them a communicator, something able to send a message to Corneria, in case they changed their minds."

"That was over two centuries ago, so when Queen Earthwalker called for help, it came as a bit of a surprise. I got called in by General Pepper, the guy in charge of the Cornerian Defence force..."

An image from the bridge recorder replayed in the display, of General Pepper giving them the mission. After it ended Fox added. "I learned later that long range sensor platforms in Lylat orbit..." The term didn't translate automatically. "Uhh... machines that could detect what was happening far away, confirmed the Queen's statement that the planet was falling to bits, and the science types, uh, natural philosophers, were all freaking out about it.

"I still don't know exactly how Sauria blowing up would have harmed the rest of the Lylat system, Slippy tried to explain it to me later, but just gave me a headache. Anyway, saving the planet was worthwhile in itself, and if they were willing to pay me to do it, so much the better. The only problem was I wasn't allowed to take my blaster, one of the provisions of that non-interference thing"

He gave a sigh. "Crazy, I know, but by the time I had evidence I needed it, I had the staff instead, so I guess it worked out."

Ema looked disbelieving, and she wasn't the only one. "They sent one warrior to save an entire world?"

"It was only the one planet." Fox grinned. "Standard operating procedure, when the situation is fouled up beyond all recognition, send in Fox McCloud. To be honest, for a scouting mission, it made sense. The whole thing just got rapidly out of hand. When we got there, we found that was pretty much how things were." The display showed orbital scans of Sauria as they first found it.

"The Spell-stones! What madman would have removed them!" exclaimed Ema.

"Sounds like you figured it out, that's what had happened, though I didn't find out until later, and I'm getting to that. The first thing that showed things were even more messed up than we already knew was when I ran into automated fighters in the debris ring. The Saurians weren't supposed to have that kind of thing." His ship's flight was shown.

"Automated fighters?" asked Krystal again.

Fox realised the term hadn't translated. "Sorry, they were machines like my space-ship, but a lot less capable and run by a machine, like the tiller, 'auto-pilot', in mine. Anyway, it turned out that a Sharpclaw alpha calling himself 'General Scales'..." an image from his meeting with the General appeared. "... had staged a successful takeover of the entire planet with they help of Lylatian technology from a Fortunan criminal called Andross. Scales was the madman in question, but I figure Andross was the one behind it."

All the telepaths detected his lingering hatred of the mad monkey as a picture of Andross when he still had a body, appeared. "Of course, I didn't know this at first." He shook his head. "I should have figured it out right then. The machinery was all Venomian designs... That was the planet Andross had used as his base. Maybe it was because I thought I'd already killed the guy, though the method I'd used didn't exactly leave a body."

He realised he was loosing his audience, the venom with which he'd talked about killing Andross had worried them, especially with the kids around. "It was necessary. He started a war that engulfed the whole Lylat system, and which killed hundreds of thousands, including my mother, father, and some of my best friends."

He shook his head. "I'm not going to go into details, telling you about that war, and the part Team Star Fox played would take until daybreak, at least. All you really need to know is he was a genius engine... artificer and inventor, he was exiled to the planet Venom for killing a lot of people, he somehow built his own army and navy while there, and attacked the Lylat system for revenge.

"However, he held tight control over his forces, and with him gone, they fell to pieces. It didn't stop the fighting, heck, it took months to finish things, but it made it possible for the planetary defence forces to regroup, fight back, and eventually win. And Team Star Fox was a part of it every step of the way."

He then explained the details of his mission on Sauria, with battle recorder playbacks where necessary. Though he removed the actual battle footage because of the children. It included his finding Krystal, the quest to find the Krazoa spirits, and the final battle with reborn Andross.

"Andross may have been a lunatic, and utterly evil, but he was a genius, and always had a back-up plan. During the war, he clearly set up a fall back base on or around Sauria. He must have found out about the Kra... Ancients, and figured out a way to divert their energy to revive himself, even if he was destroyed.

"I know for a fact he'd figured out how to use telekinesis, moving things with mind power, because he used it back when I killed him the first time. If anyone could figure out a way to alter themselves to use mind powers, or set up a scheme like this, it would be him."

"There are still things that don't make sense. He couldn't have counted on someone like Krystal being there to channel the spirits, or for someone like me to do the dirty work of collecting them. Maybe he figured he could use the released magical energies of the planet to do the job instead, but figured this was safer, or would work better."

He shrugged. "He was tough to beat, but a lot short of the invincible foe I'd have expected after getting that kind of power. Maybe he hadn't fully absorbed it when I met him in space. There was certainly enough power to fix the planet afterwards. So there you have it. The planet was saved, Scales was dead, and so was Andross, hopefully this time for good, and I got a pay-check out of it."

Krystal frowned. "But my namesake, how did she get there in the first place? Sauria is a place of legend, not since the time of the Ancients were people able to travel there! We have no 'star-ships', and even if we did, we wouldn't know where to go."

Fox shook his head. "Krystal, the other Krystal, wouldn't talk about it. How she got there, how she ended up in the crystal pillar, it clearly hurt her to talk about it, so after a while I stopped asking. All she did say was that she got a telepathic distress call from the palace, and was captured by Scales after getting the first spirit.

"Maybe this warping technology, or magic, or whatever was in use to transport me around Sauria, could do the same thing as a Beltino Gate, and transport someone from here to there. Actually, I'd like to know what you guys know about Sauria. Maybe that would help me come up with some answers."

He touched the shut-down icon within the display, and the holographic cylinder shrunk back into the floating display device, which flew back to his belt. He stepped back and looked around.

Horegan shook his head. "You have shown us some amazing things... I think many of us find it hard to take in. But you certainly made good on your promise to tell us where you came from. Normally I'd be the best one to tell such a story, but if Master Ti could be persuaded?"

The red panda had been sitting well back, taking everything in and saying nothing. Now he smiled and nodded. "How can I refuse, after such a wonderful repast, and a fascinating story?"

He came around to the front, and started speaking.

"In times past, the Ancients walked among us, and it was a time of peace and plenty. Sauria, world of the dinosaurs, hung in our sky and the warp-ways allowed us to travel there, and for the dinosaurs to visit us. The Ancients taught us much, and asked for nothing in return. Our peoples built great cities, and studied the world and it's wonders. As we grew in knowledge and wisdom, the Ancients came among us less frequently, wanting us to grow and choose our own paths.

"Then came the Sundering. Without warning, Sauria vanished from the sky, and the world went mad. Storms wracked the land, great waves inundated the coastlines, and the very ground heaved with earthquakes, creating great chasms, and whole mountains flew into the sky. It seemed as if the world would shatter, but the Ancients returned to us one last time.

"They calmed the storms and stilled the earth, drawing the world back together. They saved countless lives, collecting the survivors in safe areas. The only thing they could not do was replace Sauria in our sky. However, they stated clearly that some of their number were ensuring it too would survive.

"Our ancestors rejoiced, but it was short lived. The Ancients had passed beyond, and manifesting even briefly to save us had taxed their remaining powers sorely. They could return no more, and without their powers, the energies lying within our planet would once again unleash themselves. But they did what they could, raising the Force point temples and placing within them the Spell-stones that would stabilise the magical energy flow.

"They also took from among the survivors those with nascent mind powers, and awakened them, teaching them how to guide the magical energy flows, create staffs and other tools to aid us, bringing into being the first Protectors. They were to guard the Force Point temples, and maintaining and protecting them, and in so doing, protecting the planet.

"Each swore an oath to not use their gifts for personal gain, and an oath made under the examination of other minds can not be false. To this day we continue our duty, and help to maintain peace and order so that no war will endanger the temples. We can only hope that the Ancients look with favour upon our actions, and will continue to do so."

There were calls and whistles of appreciation from the audience, Fox included. He asked, "But none of them stayed behind, even in spirit form?"

The old Protector shook his head. "No. I was amazed at the existence of spirits on Sauria."

"I think I understand why. They must have guided the whole planet like a space ship, maintaining liveable conditions with their own powers until they could insert it into an orbit around Beta! That explains why the Saurians called them 'life spirits'. Why they ended up far away, I don't know, but it also explains the other odd things. If they could move a planet around, altering it's orbit and sweeping away asteroids would have been easy."

He looked over at Master Tea. "I know some Saurians, there's been Cloud-runners mentioned, were trapped here. Is it reasonable to assume that some Cerinians were trapped on Sauria?"

"The legends are unclear, so many were lost... but it seems reasonable. Travel occurred in both directions."

"That explains the other thing that's been driving me nuts since I was there. They must have done the same thing there, setting up Protectors. That's why there were power plants to recharge the staff, and places I could improve it's powers.

"For that matter, I always wondered how the Saurians could have built some of the places I saw. Especially with mechanisms that needed a staff to operate. Only the Lightfoot and Sharpclaw tribe had the necessary dexterity, and neither of them seemed the type to exert themselves."

He sighed. "I guess, in the end there were too few Cerinians to maintain a viable society. Still, they ultimately succeeded in protecting the place, even if it was by proxy. I don't think I could have done the job without the power-ups I received."

He yawned, and he wasn't the only one. Horegan took charge. "I believe that we should all get a good night's sleep. We have had a long day, some longer than others, and we have distance to make up tomorrow."

A motion to adjourn being always in order, the suggestion was passed by acclamation, and everyone went off to bed.


	8. Skies of Cerinia

**Mission 8 - Skies of Cerinia**

Thunk! The back of Fox's head met the decking, an all too frequent acquaintance over the last several days. The thin bands of his helm didn't help much. He didn't have time to admire the almost luminous cirrus cloud streaking the cerulean sky visible through the sails, though he rolled sideways, flipping himself up with his training staff in a guard stance, just as Protector Ema Raued's staff slammed into the deck where he'd been.

He essayed a strike at her unguarded upper body, only to have her fade effortlessly back into a guard position and stop his thrust dead in it's tracks. He withdrew, not wanting to offer any opening to that mystic with a stick. The welts on his arms and legs were evidence of where he'd let his forms become sloppy, and she'd called him on it.

He backed off, hoping to open up a gap in her defence by inviting an aggressive response. At least he couldn't slip, his boots had mol-stiction elements in the soles. Whenever he made a gripping motion with his toes, they formed a molecular weld with just about any solid surface. Powered by aeterna-cells in the heels, and able to be recharged by walking or a universal power interface.

The polarity of the molecular binding force could also be reversed, giving him the ability to make boosted high jumps, but that required a lot of power, so he'd disabled the function while riding on the cart. The sticking function didn't require so much, so even without any recharge beyond his moving around, they were unlikely to let him lose his grip, any more than he'd already done by agreeing to this jaunt.

Not that he'd really had much choice. When Master Protector Ti Li Fei had suggested he come with them to the Central Temple and face the Trials, that danged sense of rightness had kicked in. The alternative was to give up the staff, as he _hadn't_ been properly trained, and he could see that they wouldn't allow anyone, however capable, to use one unless they were part of their order.

Getting permission for Krystal to come along as well had been easy, at least from the Master Protector. Unfortunately, getting her father to agree had been less so. Her announcement to the caravan that she was going had been greeted mostly with good wishes, or amazement, but her father had blown up.

It had turned into a rather ugly shouting match, with Krystal standing on her right to go as an adult, and with the permission of Horegan, the clan leader. Her father had used his full measure of emotional blackmail, playing on the fact that he was her father and knew best, repeating his threat to disown her if she went through with it. He finally stormed off to his caravan in a high dudgeon while Krystal had turned and started crying on her elder sister's shoulder.

Fox had gone to the guy's caravan, once again letting his intuition guide him. He was met on the threshold, the door being slammed open. Obviously, the guy's empathic power had let him sense someone was coming.

"Get out!" The elder blue fox was still angry. "I said get out! You're one of the ones helping my idiot daughter to make her stupid decision!"

"That was made long before I came, I'm just trying to minimize the consequences…"

"I'm not interested!" The older blue fox was facing down the taller red one, ignoring the difference in height and skills.

Fox made his final play. "If you feel you owe me anything for saving Arera's life, give me one hundred heartbeats (the local timekeeping didn't stretch to seconds), then I'll go."

"You dare to call in _that_ debt on this?" Krystal's father was a few seconds away from leaping on Fox with his bare claws. The only thing stopping him was his own limited empathic sense telling him the fox in front of him genuinely wanted to help him.

"I stopped you losing one daughter, now I'm trying to stop you losing another!" Fox leaned forward, not giving any sign of weakness.

That knocked the older fox back on his heels. "What do you mean? Very well, one hundred heartbeats." He folded his arms and stood there.

"Like I said, I'm trying to minimise the consequences. Krystal is going, and nether you or I or anyone on this planet is stopping her." The other fox started to bridle. "She's your daughter, you must know her better than almost anyone. Given the choice between what she feels is comfortable or safe, and what is right, which would she choose?"

The blue fox grimaced, unwilling to admit what he knew was the truth. "Knowing her, she would choose the right thing top do… I taught her that."

Fox nodded. "It's clear what she believes is right in this instance, whether it is or not, and without you giving some danged convincing reasons otherwise, you're not going to budge her. Threatening her with not having a family isn't going to cut it. If you carry on in your current vein she may decide that you don't want her, whether or not you carry out the threat."

The blue fox winced as if in pain. "I do, I love my daughter, but she's going to make an huge mistake, and I'm the only one who sees it!"

Fox shook his head. "What mistake? From what she's said to me, she's certain you don't believe in her, that you think she'll fail…"

"What? No I…" Krystal's father shook his head, seeming slightly calmer. " Oh, she'll do well, I'm certain of that. In fact that's what I'm afraid of, that she'll succeed in the trails and become a Protector. The life isn't an easy one. They aren't allowed to marry, have children of their own, something to stop the whole system from being misused. That can hurt, far worse than any injury."

Something he'd heard sprung to Fox's mind. "But your parents were Protectors, weren't they? I think I see, something bad happened, didn't it?"

"So you know, or rather worked it out?" The other fox sighed. "Even the Protectors, with all their mind powers, can't stop love. Liaisons are allowed, where it doesn't interfere with their oh so sacred duty, but any children have to be put up for adoption. I was too young to really remember when it happened, but I found out later how much it had hurt my true-mother to give me up. It's… not a pretty story, some very bad things happened. I don't want Krystal to suffer like that."

"Well that explains it, why I felt I had to come here. The Krystal I knew, I did something very similar, tried to stop her from doing what she felt was right because I wanted to protect her, but I was scared to tell her my real reasons, so I just tried ordering her... It ended badly.

"Your Krystal, she's suffering right now, thinking her own father doesn't believe in her. I think my Krystal felt the same way, that I didn't believe in her, and that destroyed something important between us. It's too late for me to undo what I did, but not for you."

The red furred fox shook his head violently. "I can't… it's something I've hidden away for so long, even from Horegan, even from my family. How will they feel when they know I've hidden something this important, this shameful... and the way I've acted since, trying to avoid saying anything."

"They're your family, they'll forgive you. They can't feel any worse than they feel right now. I think you've just let one fear grow and grow until it was affecting your thinking. What happened, I won't ask for details, it may not happen for Krystal, she may be able to handle it better if it does, and she'll certainly handle it better if you've prepared her for it, and she knows you're behind her."

Fox stood aside, gesturing to the outside, and with it he threw all his belief that this was the right thing to do, knowing the other would sense it, that this was the right thing to do. "All you have to do is take that first step..."

Krystal's father was standing there, head bowed, almost wincing. Finally he looked up, tears forming. "I... you're right. I've been an idiot. I'd better go out there… apologize. There are things she needs to know." Krystal's father sighed, ruefully. He glanced at the red fox who was stepping back out of the doorway. "You're a good negotiator. Have you ever considered a career in trading?"

"I'm a mercenary. What with negotiating contracts and leading the bag of mixed nuts I was in charge of, I had no choice but to get good." Fox grinned.

The other fox smiled slightly, wiping his eyes. "well 'Mr Negotiator', I ask one thing of you. You're going with her. Please, help her, protect her."

"With my life." Fox's simple words had a rock solid sense of truth behind them, and the other fox sensed that. With a lighter heart, he left the caravan.

Back in the here and now, Fox was wishing he could negotiate his way out of getting his tail handed to him. Ema, or rather Protector Raued, was coming in, but she was careful... he tried to slip inside the green tiger's defence only to have his own attack exploited, and ending up with her face a few inches from his, her staff against his unguarded neck.

"I don't care if you can fly to the stars, and shoot someone's kneecaps off from half a ri away! That doesn't do you any good when someone's in your face, whaling away with a club on your spleen!"

Fox caught the sense of her diatribe before his translator system rendered an idiomatic translation of the words. Oh yes, he was trying to learn Saurian by total immersion, spending every spare minute, not that he had many, reviewing conversations. Ema was certainly expanding his understanding of invective. The fact that all three of his tutors were telepaths, and he supposedly had some ability in that direction had to be helping, as he was picking it up far faster than he'd expected.

He dropped out of her field of view and tried a sneaky stabbing strike to her foot en passant. It failed, but gave him time to slip past her and open up the length of the deck for manoeuvring again. She spun on him and attacked. He fell into a combat fugue, stringing moves together. Guard! Turn! Parry! Dodge! Spin! Thrust! Uh oh! Wham!

When he woke up, his head was one again renewing it's relationship with the ship's planks. Ema just sniffed. "The Ancients may know what to do with you, but I don't! Go practice with Apprentice Krystal, at least you can serve as an example of what not to do."

She stalked off towards the stern. Krystal was up at the bow on the same side, practising a tightly controlled set of motions with her staff, a kata, and watching his embarrassing defeat. He scooped up his staff, which had shrunk back to baton size when he'd released it, and went over to her.

"You are getting better." She said, giggling, as he approached. "Protector Raued is having to work a lot harder to get past your guard, and she's defending a lot of the time too."

"I know, but she's right, I've got a long way to go. Y'know, I figured I was pretty good at this until I met her. Shall we?"

"Partner kata, followed by some free sparring alright?" Krystal guarded herself.

Fox nodded assent, and they set to. One of the neat things about Protector staffs, and one of the reasons they could only be used by someone with some degree of 'power of the mind' as they called it, was that it interfaced with a users body on an autonomic level, providing it with a sort of synthetic muscle memory.

The upshot was that as soon as you picked up a staff, you knew how to use it, to attack and defend, even activate it's powers and cause it to expand and shrink. When Fox had found Krystal's staff, it had synchronised with him within a few seconds and that, combined with his experience with other forms of hand to hand, had been enough to get by, at least against enemies like grunt Sharpclaws.

Then he'd come up against a Protector, who'd trained with the thing. He'd had his tail handed to him! Knowing how to fly a star-fighter, even if you had hair trigger reflexes, didn't make you a combat pilot. Tactics, strategy, the whole gestalt of things that made up combat reflexes, that he'd been missing. He was a fast learner, but he'd only had a few days, and he had many things to learn.

One were the kata to internalise the muscle memory the staffs provided. That was supposed to be a learning aid, not a crutch, but to make it work you had to practice the moves, as moves, and not just use them in a fight, where you had other things to concentrate on. At least he could hold his own against Krystal, his greater over-gee strength and natural fast reflexes helping to balance out her greater experience with melee weapons.

She had managed to find training somewhere, even before getting on board the 'New Dawn', the Protector's sky-ship. Now she was training hard, as hard as he was, to prepare for the Trials that would take place at the Central Temple in Nihon, and select those worthy to become Protectors. Exactly what the Trials would be, he didn't know, but Fox would be taking them along with her.

As for his relationship with her personally, it was still forming. He wasn't her commanding officer, or her rescuer, except that he'd helped her family and helped her towards her aim of being a Protector. They were trainees, working closely together, and learning about each other at the same time. And there was so much to learn. Watches together, sparring, she was helping to expand his Saurian vocabulary, and had started teaching him the basics of Nihonese. She also wanted to learn more about the fascinating world he came from, and was a fountain of information about Cerinia.

She drove forward with a sequence, and he made the correct responses, letting his body follow it's patterns as he focussed on feeling them flow within him. He struck back with the next stage of the kata, and her body moved and swept back, staff blocking each strike. She moved gracefully, whether fighting, running, or simply walking, though he tried to ignore that as much as possible.

As they switched to sparring, she gave a fierce grin, and he responded. Neither gave any quarter, and that was how they both liked it, wanting the other to push them to their limits. This girl was the Krystal he'd once known, and yet she wasn't. This Krystal had the same sense of wonder, the same quick wit, the same dedication and empathy as the one he'd known, but she smiled more freely, talked more easily, laughed more often, something he loved to hear.

It was as if he was seeing his Krystal, but in a broken, distorting glass that changed what he saw... No, it was as if the Krystal he'd known had been the one seen in the mirror, and this was the reality, the person he'd seen so rarely, on the rare occasions she'd peeked from behind the barriers that she'd erected to protect herself from a world that had wounded her so.

Well not this time. He'd make good on his promise to her father, and protect her. Not by trying to keep her away from harm, but by being there to cover her tail whenever possible. Though right now he was out to hammer on her tail if anything.

She blazed forward with a familiar combination, and he moved into the appropriate riposte. He counter-attacked with an overhead sweep to have her duck, tuck and roll backwards coming up with a raised staff before he could exploit the momentary opening in her guard.

"Nice move!" he called out.

She grinned, and struck in with a spinning, double ended strike that had him weaving his staff to block the blows. He faded back, trying to draw her into an extended attack, and unlike Protector Raued, she wasn't experienced enough to spot it coming. He dropped under her powerful thrust, and swept her legs with a cross-wise-strike. She dropped on here side to the deck, rolling away even as she landed, evading his follow-up strike, just a jab to indicate a hit.

He backed off as she came up in to a guard stance. "I always thought fighting hand-to-hand against a telepath would be a losing proposition." He said, knowing the answer for longer range space-fighter combat after having a similar conversation with the older Krystal, and wondering if the same thing held true here.

"Unless they're a complete novice, a fighter doesn't consciously think about their moves, they just act. There's nothing to read. Empathy can give you a feeling about intent, but even that is hard to sense in the middle of a battle. And even if you know they want to goad you, or cover, it doesn't tell you how. Best to watch their body, not their mind."

"I have no problem with that... uh, I mean..." Dang, the last thing he wanted to make her think was that he was flirting with her, but she just giggled. "I mean, it'd be a step up if I could sense anything at all!"

She looked more sympathetic. "Training with Master Ti not going so well?"

Fox frowned. "It's not that I'm denying this whole 'power of the mind' thing. Heck, I've seen plenty of evidence... it's just getting my head around the idea I can do it. I'm trying, but..."

"I suppose it would be hard for you. You said your people don't have such things, at least not as something accepted as fact. I grew up around others with the same power, my sisters, my father. Learning to sense feelings, then thoughts, it was as natural as learning to talk."

The red fox grinned. "Now you sound like Master Ti. 'Before you can learn to truly use your powers, you must first unlearn that you can not.' I do the meditation exercises, clear my mind... not a big job, and try to sense the emotion he's projecting. Last night I thought I got something, but whether it was empathy, wishful thinking, or having been hit in the head one to many times by Protector Raued, I don't know."

Krystal smiled back, and said, "She'll probably smack us both over the skull if we slack off much longer. Guard yourself!"

She came at him again, and he started dodging and counter-striking in turn. Between learning staff combat, two new languages, how to fly a sky-ship, and his mental training Fox was bruised and battered, physically and mentally, falling asleep each night as soon as he collapsed in his sleeping bag, when he wasn't on a late watch at the helm. In short, he was having the time of his life! He hadn't been challenged like this since the Academy, and if the teaching was even more intense, he hadn't had one-on-one tuition then.

Even his sessions with Ema, painful though they might be, were effective. She might belittle him most of the time, but on those few occasions where he'd managed to drive the combat, the same stubborn integrity that made her so aggressive, or should that be abrasive, about her opinions, meant she had given him grudging complements. And that made them all the more valuable because he knew he'd earned them.

As he threw himself into the mock combat, dancing back and forth along the sky-ship's bow, he decided that his instincts had been right on the money, this was where he needed to be, where he could find what he thought he'd once lost. Hopefully, he'd once again be able to make a difference. If his crazier ideas were right, it might be the difference between life and death for the entire planet.

If not...well the ride was a lot more fun than anything he'd done for years, and the company was excellent. It seemed you could teach an old fox new tricks, and he was out to learn as many of them as possible so that no matter what the months ahead held, he'd be ready.


	9. Skies of Cerinia Legends

**Mission 9 – Skies of Cerinia Legends**

Fox was taking his turn at the helm of the 'New Dawn', one of his first solo stints while the others rested. The fluid level in the pressure altimeter showed they were flying straight and level at around 40 hiro, the hiro being a measure of distance roughly equivalent to 18 standard metres, so about 700 standard metres high. The compass showed their direction to be south-west, which matched what the direction of the setting sun was telling him.

The cockpit was a waist high half box that shielded the controls and instruments, recessed into the deck just aft of the main mast, under the lateen yard, which was a over a standard metre above the deck to avoid hitting the pilot on the head. A shielded oil lantern provided light at night, and a harness allowed the pilot to stay steady even in high winds, which at the moment he didn't need. A periscope that went down behind the mast into the keel allowed the pilot to look ahead from underneath, or by pulling a lever straight down, a useful thing for taking off and landing.

He was amazed at how few instruments they used. It made sense though, sky-ships flew around the continent, not over open ocean, and primarily used landmarks rather than solar or astronomical navigation. The only other devices were a set of weighted streamers on the mast for measuring the relative wind speed and direction, and an egg-timer like device for counting out time between tacks. He could have used his PDA to check position, but he was trying to learn their ways of doing things.

Most things anyway, his headset was playing a semi-classical selection from John Sebastian Bark, a Cornerian composer from the early space age, and one of the first to combine classical instruments with electronics. His 'Prelude to Space' was as iconically linked to space travel to a Lylatian as 'Also Sprach Zathura' to a terrestrial human. However, the current selection was from 'Biosphere Commentaries', a set of themes exploring the feel of different habitats, and excellent for atmosphere travel. And there was plenty of travelling to be done.

As the Arwing flew, it was 400 ri, about 1600 skm to Nihon, and the main temple of the Protectors. Fox's Arwing II would have made the trip in just over half a hour at atmospheric speeds, the distance being so short that doing it as a sub-orbital trajectory wouldn't have saved more than a couple of minutes. Horegan's wagons were lucky to make 10 ri a day, and would have gone by a more round-about route that would see them there in about 60 to 70 days. A sky-ship could fly high enough to catch the steady, laminar air-flows of the lower stratosphere, which could allow it to travel 10 ri or better in an hour, if it was travelling with the wind.

Unfortunately, at this time of year, the prevailing winds were in the other direction, from the west, requiring the New Dawn to beat against the wind in wide tacks, reducing the speed and increasing the distance. With the fact that they had to veer south of the shortest path, this added up to the fact that the New Dawn's actual travel time, rather than a couple of days, was likely to be a couple of weeks. They'd passed over lightly populated areas, even stopped overnight at a few, but this part of the continent seemed completely uninhabited.

He looked around him, music swelling in the background, appreciating the golden afternoon light on the rolling green foot hills and broken forest far below, and the string of glittering lakes just visible off to port. Pulling down his zoom goggles, he focussed to starboard and examined the mist and cloud shrouded peaks of the Cloudrunner range, a north to south chain of mountains that he'd detected during his orbital survey, which split the upper half of the continent in two.

It was home to the main colony of Cloudrunners. While many of the pterodon-like creatures lived among the other races, this main group formed a fiercely territorial nation, one of the few that didn't participate in the Great Council, though neither were they a threat to the peace, being insular and rarely travelling beyond their own borders.

The mountains were rich in useful ores and metals, and their nation's main income was leasing out mining claims to other peoples, while cultivated mountain valleys, lakes and forests supplied most of their needs, making them otherwise self sufficient, and with uncontested air superiority they were almost unassailable. So they felt no need to associate with other species, beyond trading for fine crafts and luxuries, and policing the mining expeditions and traders that entered their realm.

While the New Dawn could fly high enough to make it over the peaks, even a Protector sky-ship would not be allowed to travel freely through Cloudrunner territory, though they'd more likely be escorted out of their air-space than attacked, and reparations demanded from the Protectors. That was why the ship had to veer so far off the most efficient course.

Speaking of course, the sand had almost run down in the glass. With the wind currently from the west-south-west, the ship was on a starboard tack, the wind coming from ahead and the ship's right hand side. Crystals similar to the repulsion crystals that held the ship aloft were mounted crosswise in the keel, enchanted (the word was as good as any) to resist crosswise movement and replacing the resistance of water against the keel that allowed a water-based boat to sail upwind.

To change onto the port tack, it was necessary to steer using the wing-sails. Winch handles and levers allowed the pilot to let out or draw in the wing-sails, or adjust the set of their supporting spars. In this way, they replaced the rudder on a regular ship, and the flaps on an aircraft. The main sail and lateen needed no alteration, as they would automatically swing across as the boat changed tack.

Fox had never been much interested in water based boats, but this flying boat had fascinated him. He'd taken to piloting it like a duck to orange sauce, unexpectedly, but well. The design, and quality of workmanship, had reinforced his opinion that while the Cerinians might not have all the advanced technologies of Lylat, those they did have had been polished to a high gloss.

Winding the handle, he let out the starboard wing-sail, and used the lever to set the upper spar aft of the lower, meaning the wind catching it would drive it both back and down. The bow came around, as the ship rolled slightly to the right and the booms swept across, the sails now catching the wind from the left hand side. The starboard wing-sail was now shielded by the bulk of the vessel, and the roll stabilised.

Fox turned the timer, and checked the altimeter to check the ship hadn't descended during the turn. He found they had dropped a few hiro and wound another handle. While the main repulsion crystals, arm-length chunks of quartz-like rock (maybe it _was_ quartz, he was no geologist) were fixed into the ribs of the ship, a smaller secondary set were on rotating brackets, and could be tilted between vertical and horizontal.

The crystals reacted with the radiating energy field of the planet, generating a faint blue glow, and a repulsive force hundreds of times their own weight when aligned vertically. The main set counteracted the fixed weight of the boat, while the movable ones could be adjusted to counter the weight of crew and cargo, or adjust altitude when the wing-sails couldn't be used to generate a net upwards or downwards force.

As Fox wound the handle, the pointer that showed the attitude of the crystals became more vertical. When the altimeter approached it's previous setting, he wound it back to the previous setting, neutral lift for the ship. It wasn't an Arwing, but he was flying it, and quite effectively he felt. He heard someone moving up to the hatch behind him and applied another newly learned skill. Defocussing his mind as Master Ti had shown him, he let a sense that was still new to him flow out to the newcomer.

Possibly because he had come to it so late, his empathic sense, rather than being a pure and distinct thing, caused some synaesthesia, overflow into other senses, in his case his sense of smell. Master Ti said it would disappear as he grew more experienced. So the presence, which carried a feeling of contentment, came with a cinnamon-sweet scent... Krystal.

"Hi Krystal!" He spoke without looking as the hatch opened.

The blue fox popped up seconds later. "Well done Fox. I could sense you realising it was me."

The red fox chuckled ruefully, though he took pride in the fact that he understood her words without mechanical assistance. The music in his ears automatically faded when his headset detected his speech. "Should have expected it, huh? Sensing me sensing you, heck that's confusing."

Krystal giggled. "Sorry, I didn't mean to steal your thunder. I think Master Ti is really impressed with your progress."

The red fox shrugged. "Since it's a matter of clearing my mind, which was pretty empty to begin with..." Fox glanced at his instruments and finally turned, suddenly spotting what she was carrying. "Food! You, my lady, are a life saver!"

"Hardly." Krystal blushed slightly, putting down one of the bowls on the small shelf on one side of the cockpit. "It was my turn. But Sora-chan's the cook in our family..."

"Doesn't matter, I'm ready to eat anything... uh... I mean..." He winced. "I didn't mean you aren't a great cook, just... I think I'll concentrate on using my mouth for eating for the next few moments, maybe I can do that without messing up!"

Fortunately, his new sense allowed him to confirm that she hadn't been offended. Amused was more like it. He plied chopsticks to the bowl of savoury noodles and meat, which was excellent, despite Krystal's demurral. "Delicious!"

She had a second bowl, and started eating when he did. "I'm glad you like it." They shared a companionable silence as they both attacked their dinners. As they were getting to the bottom of the bowls, Krystal spoke.

"That was a pretty smooth tack you made. I wouldn't have known about it if the crystals hadn't shifted. The pot didn't even ripple. I guess this comes rather easily to you though."

Fox dismissed the complement with a wave of his hand. "Uh uh, this is completely different to any sort of flying I've ever done. Not that I mind a challenge. You'd probably pick up an Arwing's controls just as fast." Actually he knew she could, having seen it happen.

"I wish I could know more of your world, what I saw when you showed us where you came from, and what you said since, it sounds amazing. Cerinia seems so primitive by comparison."

"Not true." Fox shook his head, then slurped up the last of the broth that sat in the bottom of the bowl. "I may not be the sharpest tool in the locker, but even I can figure out the difference between technologically advanced, and civilised. I've seen far too many people with advanced technology use it for some very uncivilised things."

Krystal was intent on the public thoughts which mirrored his words, and for a few seconds she got images leaking beyond his private memories, a beautiful city of tall towers and raised roadways, smouldering and broken beneath black and red machines that somehow screamed 'enemy'. It was seen from within a transparent box, a cockpit, utterly unlike the one in a sky-ship.

The image changed. A group of blocky spaceships, escorted by sleek winged darts, space fighters of a similar but simpler model than his, were suddenly harried by black and red wedges, enemies. But this image carried a sense of disconnect, as if second hand. Two darts, somehow more important in his mind, swept into the greatest concentration of red and black vehicles, allowing the bulky freighters to escape, and wreaking great slaughter on the enemies before they themselves disappeared in blooms of light and fire. Fox closed his eyes momentarily, dropping his head a fraction, and the images faded, along with the pain and guilt he felt at not having been in time to stop those things happening.

He looked back up at her. "Sorry... From what you've told me, you guys have a pretty good set up. A voluntarily stable, healthy population, and a set-up that keeps things peaceful while still giving people plenty of chance to be themselves. Heck, just the way your caravan reacted to my presentation. You were surprised, yes, but you weren't scared, and you were eager to understand. That isn't the reaction of primitives."

He put down the empty bowl and reached into his pocket. "Though if you want to see more... I had a couple of data pads in my backpack, forgot I had them. I use them for after action reports mostly." He reached into a pocket and pulled out a palm sized square wafer of grey plastic and squeezed one edge. A twelve inch square flat holo-interface flashed into being over it. He forestalled her question with an explanation.

"Think of it like a basic version of my PDA, more like those slates you've been using to show me writing." While the Cerinians had paper and ink, it was expensive, so temporary notes were written on slates with chalk. Ancient was a mass of pictograms, while Nihon was a simple phonetic script. Given his heavy schedule, he'd barely had a chance to study either to any degree. At least they used positional decimal notation, even if the numerals were different.

He manipulated the icons on the holo-interface, which like most, could detect his fingers inside the field of view, and an array of files appeared. "This one's got a bunch of school books and images on it, as well as some music, being school books they have text to speech, and I've fixed the interface with a copy of Slippy's translator so it'll read out in Ancient." He showed her the controls, a matter of touching file icons or visual controls on the screen. Then he handed it to her.

She took the device, a bit stunned, then recovered and hugged him. "Thank you Fox, this is a princely gift."

Fox put one hand behind his head, looking a bit embarrassed but pleased, and Krystal could sense he was just happy to have done something nice for her. "I should have done it sooner, but with how busy I've been... I figured since I've got a lot more catching up to do than you have, this'd be something for you to enjoy when I can't be there to tell you things myself."

"But how did you happen to have such books. Surely you don't need them?" the blue fox looked at him curiously.

"No, but I knew someone who did, your counterpart. She had to learn this stuff to adjust to the Lylat system. I just never removed the files from my PDA."

She looked at the glowing image, eagerly, but said, "I feel a bit guilty, having something like this and not being able to share it with my clan."

"Oh, I gave one of the others to Horegan, with the same stuff on it. It was the least I could do after what your caravan did for me. He even gave me some ryo, so when we get to the big city I have spending money. I figured the best gift I could give in return was knowledge. I figure he's wise enough to use it responsibly. When it's not in use, the interface collects light to charge the aeterna-cell... well, let's just say it should work for years."

"Was that why Baisu was so excited when we left? He's always been the most curious of any of the younglings. I'm surprised he wasn't bombarding you with questions when you gave your talk."

Fox shook his head. "Well he knows about it. I mean, it's logical the kids should get a chance to learn from it, but Baisu was a special case. You know about his dream?"

Krystal smiled. "Who doesn't? My little third cousin once-removed has been crazy about sky-ships almost since he was born."

Fox sighed. "He wanted to be the first to travel right round the world, and then I come along and wreck his dream by having already done it. That wasn't something I was proud of, so I decided to make it up to him."

Fox found the little blue fox off on his own, watching the caravan as it packed up to leave. At least he was looking in that direction, but his expression could only be described at glum, and he didn't seem to notice Fox, not until the fighter pilot spoke. "Hey, Baisu, isn't it?"

The smaller fox jumped at the voice and looked up. "Huh, oh, Protector McCloud!"

"That remains to be seen. In fact, that's why I'm going with the Protectors, to see if I make the grade. But I wanted to speak to you before I went. Why are you upset?"

"Upset? What makes you think I'm upset?" The youngster didn't meet his eye, looking down at the ground.

The red fox grinned, but shook his head. "I hope you're a better sky sailor than you are at hiding your feelings. Is it because you figure my sky-ship already flew around the world?"

"How... oh, yeah, Protector..." He gave a sigh. "Yes."

"Actually I wasn't dipping into your mind. Last night you pretty much wore your emotions on that semi-detached sleeve of yours." Fox shook his head. "Anyway, it doesn't count."

He pulled out his PDA and set it showing a small three dimensional image, a rotating Cerinia, half darkened, half greens and blues. Despite his funk Baisu perked up. A line appeared in the display, coming down from the top and around the globe, circling vertically as the sphere turned underneath it. It ended in breaking off, turning to the side and following an arc that ended on the planet. "The path my sky ship took."

He tweaked a control, and the sphere unfolded to a Mercator style map, showing the layout of continents and the sine wave path his ship took. It hadn't taken him any time to program, since the program he was using was designed to take data from Recon or ELINT satellites and turn them into tactical maps. Doing the same for his ships sensors was a standard function.

"I was in space, not on the planet. Until I came in for a landing, I was never closer than..." He made the calculation in his head, "... about 30 ri. I never landed anywhere, or even took close up views of what I was flying over. I was looking for a place to land, nothing more. Plus I was doing at least 2 ri per heartbeat, far too fast to get any detail. While I saw other continents, I can show you little more than their outlines."

"That's still really amazing!" Baisu was intent now on the world map. "This all came from your sky-ship?"

"Yep. But someone still has to _go_ to those other continents, explore them close up before you can say the job's been done properly." He hoped he had the young fox read right, that it would intrigue him,rather than discourage him.

"It'll require an expert sky sailor, as well as successful enough to buy their own ship, or convince someone to buy one for them. Plus they'd need a loyal crew, willing to follow you anywhere. It'd be an epic challenge, the work of a lifetime even to start the job..."

Fox was looking right at Baisu now, trying to divine his reaction, and wishing he had some of the empathy a Protector was supposed to have.

Baisu had perked up considerably, and looked right up at Fox, with his cocky grin back in place. "Then it's lucky I have a lifetime to do it in!"

Fox grinned. "Now that's what I wanted to hear! I can't help you with a ship, or crew, or make you grow up any faster, but there is one thing I can do. I've given Elder Horegan a simpler device that can show what maps I did get. Plus there's some stuff about ways my people found there way around open ocean back when we used sailing ships. So when you set out, you should have some idea of where to go, and how to get there. What you do with it is up to you."

"That's a lot of trouble to go to for a child you only met briefly." Krystal said after he'd explained. "Why did you?"

Fox shrugged. "It wasn't that much work, just transferring few extra files, since I was giving Horegan the data-pad anyway. Like I said, what he does with it is up to him. It was kinda pleasant, doing something nice for someone that didn't involve killing things."

"He might get killed chasing his dream." the blue fox responded.

"Maybe, but by the time he's ready to try it, he'll be old enough to accept the consequences. It's not like your dream is completely safe either, especially with those Sharpclaw running around."

He was struck by a thought. "Some people are happy to care for what they have, like your sister, and some are driven to pursue some goal. Both kinds are important, but I know which kind Baisu, and you, and I are. I saw it in his eyes, the same look I saw in the mirror when I was a kid who wanted to be the best fighter pilot in the Lylat system, just like my father before me."

"Me?" Krystal's head cocked to one side slightly, looking at him curiously.

He grinned. "Now you're fishing. You are going to be a great Protector, one of the best, and I don't need to see the future to tell that. I see it in your eyes right now." Fox met her gaze and held it. She could feel the truth of his statements, but now she was more interested in the depths of those green eyes, brilliant even in the twilight.

"I dreamed of being the best pilot in the Lylat system, and then protecting people from what I knew was coming... and you've dreamed of being a Protector. I worked hard and accomplished my dreams, and now I have a chance to help others to do the same thing. Not give it to them, but lend a helping hand. And why not?"

She was looking back him, just as deeply. 'Sora-chan was right... he cares. Even about the littlest things.' She flushed slightly, glad his power of mind skills weren't up to telepathy yet, as she was sure her public thoughts would embarrass him. 'I felt his pain earlier, the pilots in those ships must have been friends of his. He's been hurt so many times, and yet he still cares.'

She was beginning to think this other Krystal, the one who had left him, must have been damaged in the head. A caring, decent male, yet not soft or weak, a killer without ruth for his foes when needed, but not distant, or cold. Maturity, and a sense of honour you could moor a sky-ship to... and a sense of humour to mitigate it.

They shared each others gaze, and he must have felt her dawning emotions with his still nascent empathic sense, for his eyes widened even as his own emotions spiked... Suddenly his mind flared in a way she couldn't follow, and his demeanour changed.

"Arm yourself!" He turned away, his mind shifting from glowing lantern to blazing sword, as his hand dropped to his thigh. She knew the device that was holstered there, his blaster, was a weapon, even more powerful than a full power fire blast from a Protector's staff, but she'd never seen it in action, since it had never left the holster since the Sharpclaw fight, and Sorako had been too busy surviving to notice it's effects.

Now it was held in his hand, before she'd even started moving, and when eight bat-winged shapes ascended over the edges of the deck and dropped four Sharpclaw grunts onto each side, his blaster was already tracking. With a burst of energy, one Sharpclaw toppled backwards over the coming, head burned to a cinder and flaring into light even as it fell. She fumbled for her training staff, and sent out a telepathic yelp for help, alerting the two Protectors below decks, if they hadn't already sensed the disruption.

'We come, young one!' Master Ti's mental voice was reassuring, but there were still seven... six Sharpclaw grunts to deal with, as Fox's sniper accurate blaster removed the nearest one on the opposite side of the deck. She finally grasped her training staff, only to have it slip from her fingers and skitter across the deck to lie against the deck coaming. She considered diving after it, but that would leave her naked to Sharpclaw axes.

Without looking, Fox's free hand dipped into his backpack, and removed the compacted Protector's staff, but rather than extending it, he held it behind him, a message surfacing above the incandescent sword of his mind for a second. 'It's dangerous to go alone, use this!' He blasted another approaching Sharpclaw, but on the confined deck, and forced to cover both sides he couldn't blast them faster then they could approach.

She grabbed the staff, uncertain if she could use it, since each staff attuned itself to it's wielder, and there was no time to acclimatise it to her. But it dropped into her hand, and expanded without resistance, as if already attuned. She could sense it's powers, it was a powerful one, such as only the most experienced Protectors carried. Krystal lined up a Fire Blast and shot the nearest Sharpclaw even as Fox leapt up out of the recessed cockpit and closed with one on the other side, leaving her a clear field of view.

The red fox dived under it's powerful swing to hook it's leg with his own training staff and topple the bipedal lizardoid backwards. It forced the final one back a pace to avoid being felled, and left it a clear target as Fox raised his blaster and shot upwards through it's jaw. But that gave the fallen one a moment to recover, and it hurled itself forward, driving Fox over backwards and onto the deck, blaster sliding away.

Krystal had her own problems, the last Sharpclaw on the other side had used the one she shot as cover, flinging the corpse forward even as it evaporated and gotten into melee range. She was trapped in the recessed cockpit, waist level with the decking it stood on, using all her skill and agility to parry or dodge the blows from above.

Meanwhile, Fox writhed under the weight of the Sharpclaw body, twisting his head to one side as a set of three inch claws scored curls of varnished wood from the deck where it had been a fraction of a second prior. The fighter had dropped it's axe to attack hand to hand, or rather paw to claw. The heel of Fox's gloved hand came up to smash under it's jaw, but without the space to wind up, it did little more than hold the creature away from biting Fox's face off.

Ema appeared through the trapdoor in the cockpit just as Krystal triggered the Ice Spray ability of her staff, and swept it across her opponent's legs as he drew his axe back for a crushing strike. Half freezing it's legs and binding them to the deck put the creature off it's stride, literally, and gave her time to follow up with a horizontal sweep that smashed one of it's legs, and broke the other, dropping it to the deck.

Krystal bounded up onto the deck after it, and thrust weapon-end straight downwards with all her strength, smashing right through it's breastplate and spraying thick green ichor up the staff, before it evaporated with the creature. She felt Fox's emotions spike, and turned to look..

She saw him slide his compacted training staff under the Sharpclaw he was barely holding off, then extend it. One end was jammed into the crook of his armpit, buttressed against the deck. The other went in to the base of the Sharpclaw's throat, and then it extended, throwing the Sharpclaw off him and causing it to give a strangled yowl as it's throat was damaged.

While not enough to kill the thing outright, it hardly mattered as Fox slipped back, kicked off into a backwards roll and came up, staff in hand even as the Sharpclaw regained it's balance and leapt, claws extended. The fox warrior skipped sideways and spun, smashing down with a double handed diagonal strike at it's neck. There was a crunch and a gurgle, and that foe was done, but not before one last wild flail struck Fox's legs.

Krystal could see only part of this, her view of the top half of Fox obscured by the sail, but she saw clearly as he was swept over backwards, even as the Sharpclaw that had struck him disintegrated. She dived under the boom and across to the far side, landing prone as she reached for him.

She barely missed grasping one ankle, and hauled herself forward using the coaming, head and shoulders over the edge, hoping she could catch him. Once again she barely missed him, and watched in horror as he dropped away towards the darkness below... only to tumble in mid-air and grab at the upper spar of a wing sail. His one handed grip slipped, and he slid down the wing-sail itself, but was slowed enough to catch the lower spar, where he hung, his other hand still gripping his now compacted training staff.

"I'm okay..." He grinned as he looked up at her, and she grabbed the staff that had fallen beside her to lower it as a way up. Then his expression suddenly changed as he focussed on something above and behind her. "Above you!"

Her thoughts and empathic sense had been focussed on him, but his intent was clear, so she rolled to the side, even as she reached out with her empathic sense, and looked up. A Cloudrunner's shape was diving on her, still darker than the star speckled indigo sky overhead, and it's foot-claws broke off the section of coaming she'd hung over a second before as it closed it's talons upon it.

Her empathic sense, helped by vulpine low light vision, quickly made sense of the attack. The Cloudrunner was fitted with a double saddle, and muzzled. Riding it, and holding a mace, was a second Sharpclaw. The Cloudrunner was clearly under duress, raging against it's rider but for some reason helpless to harm it. The Sharpclaw swung at her, but the Cloud runner's wing chose that moment to 'accidentally' obscure it's vision.

She could sense the dull iron glow of the Sharpclaw's mind as it switched targets and forced the Cloudrunner to dive. Fox, it was after him! She rolled back to face down, and saw en-passant Master Ti and Protector Ema were fully occupied dealing with the other flyers, fending them off of the sails with blasts from their staffs.

They were hampered by the fact that they didn't want to hit the clearly enslaved Cloudrunners, and their position gave them few clear shots at the Sharpclaws riding them. Ema did connect with one Sharpclaw, bounding up off the lateen boom and using a jet boost from the staff to rise high enough to attack the reptile on it's mount from above. One swipe from a tora-jin was more than sufficient to smash the Sharpclaw grunt. But the other six still harried them, there'd be no help from that quarter.

This took only a fraction of a second to see as she turned over, pointing the staff down to cover the diving Sharpclaw, but the pterodon rider had closed with Fox, turning the Cloudrunner so it could attack with it's mace. She wasn't sure she could shoot it without hitting Fox, who now had both hands on the spar, and his training staff in his mouth. Despite the peril he appeared to be in, his mind glow was calmly confident, even calculating.

As the Sharpclaw dived past him, swinging, he used his legs like a pendulum to swing on the spar like a gymnast, swinging his body up and back, out of the way of the swipe. As it passed beneath him, it was 'Fox three', as he flung himself down, throwing himself at the descending Cloudrunner like a Sharpclaw seeking missile as it pulled the Cloudrunner out of it's power-dive.

It quickly became Fox one, Sharpclaw zero, as his boots smashed into the back of it's neck. The creature was smacked down against the pterodon's body, and the feeble sweep of it's mace behind it came nowhere near the fox on it's back. Fox stepped backwards onto the rear saddle, thanking his mol-stiction boots for providing him with stable footing, and deployed his training staff, smashing the Sharpclaw with repeated blows that quickly saw it follow it's fellows.

Fox dropped into it's vacated saddle, speaking in Saurian. "It's okay, I'll get you free, and help free your friends, but could you help me help mine?" Even as he spoke, he slid his staff into his belt, and started working on the crude buckles that held the bridle and muzzle over it's beak. They were simple, crafted large and sturdy for less than dexterous clawed digits. It came free, and fell away as the Cloudrunner circled.

"Agreed, Protector, but we must get them all!" replied the Cloudrunner.

"Then I'll need to get up there!" called out Fox, and the flying dinosaur, beat it's wings, ascending on a thermal from the hills below. Krystal had not been idle, seeing Fox rising to meet her. She'd unleashed one of the boat's stored firefly lanterns, and the whole deck was now dimly illuminated by the floating motes, more than well enough for vulpine low light vision.

She scooped up Fox's blaster, and went to meet him as his steed landed. She called out with relief. "Fox, you're alright!"

"Yep, but no time! Get up behind me, I need fire-power... You can carry both of us?" The last was directed at the Cloudrunner, even as he did up the harness straps that had been left loose by the vanishing Sharpclaw. "What should I call you anyway?"

"The name is Win dam, and you're lighter than my last cargo!" The Cloudrunner stated with a hint of humour.

"Fox, and this is Krystal!" the red fox replied, reaching down to help her up. "Speaking of which, strap in, things are going to get interesting!"

Krystal swung herself up, and in seating herself on the rear seat, had to brush his tail to one side, maybe taking a fraction of a second longer than needed. Her conversation with Sorako surfaced, and she felt her face flush. Fortunately, Fox appeared to be concentrating on the fight. To cover her momentary inattention, she passed forward his blaster.

"Thanks, you're a mind reader!" Fox said with relief, then realised what he said.

"I know!" giggled Krystal, doing up her own straps.

Fox shook his head, and looked up at the circling Cloudrunners. "Get above them, Windam, I'll try and guide you into the best position for us to fire from..."

The Cloudrunner rose on powerful wings, ignored by the Sharpclaw riders until he rose above the sails. Fox leaned low to the Cloudrunner's body, one hand with the blaster held forward. Krystal focussed her mind on him, ready to follow his lead. She was shocked by what she sensed. Fox was a quick learner, but he was still gaining full use of his most basic, empathic sense. Yet she could clearly feel he was en-rapport with the Cloudrunner, not the full interchange of senses she and Sorako had done, in fact light enough that it was probable neither he nor the Windam realised it.

"Dive!" His thoughts elaborated what he wanted, and the Cloudrunner swooped down as two others turned towards him, weaving to confuse them. Fox picked one Sharpclaw off with a well placed blaster shot from above, even as Krystal took the second, attuning to his awareness the movement of their mount to compensate for it.

Three more swept in, the Sharpclaws mewling and calling instructions to one another, bracketing the lone Cloudrunner as the last two flew up and away. Fox took out the rider of the one coming in head to head, but just missed one of the side ones as it did a desperate aerial evasion. Krystal was in a bad orientation to target the other and also missed.

The two Sharpclaw riders closed almost to melee range, unlimbering spears the others hadn't had.

"Do a barrel roll!" Fox's last two words were in Lylatian, but despite the fact that they should have been meaningless to Windam, he rolled and drew in his wings, performing a perfect barrel roll that took it over the riderless Cloudrunner ahead of it, and left the other fliers without a target.

One was quickly rendered irrelevant, as the descending fight had finally given the Protectors on deck a clear shot at their adversaries. The nearer one was picked off by a Fire Blast from Ema, while Fox brought his Cloudrunner around to give Krystal a broadside attack on the last one, which ended up being blasted from three directions at once.

"The last two, they must not escape!" called out Windam.

"Krystal, use the boost to catch up!" The concept in Fox's mind was even clearer than his words, and she jammed the melee end of the staff against the saddle, while triggering the jet boost effect. Keeping it up for any length of time would quickly drain the staff, but the fleeing Sharpclaw's hadn't gotten more than a few hundred standard meters in the seconds their comrades had bought, even diving to gain extra air space.

Fox slid his Zoom goggles on, set to infra-red overlay and making the escapees as clear as day to him. "That way!"

Windam dived after them, adding to the power of the staff boost and straining to his utmost limits to close the range. The extra weight of two foxes compared to the single Sharpclaw riders the fleeing ones carried actually helped as he swept in and onto the others.

"You take the port one, I'll take starboard!" called out Fox to Krystal. Unfortunately, with unaided sight, even vulpine she couldn't see well enough to aim... at least until the bright flash of a plasma bolt striking one in the back illuminated the other. She aimed, and fired. The shot was high, but not too high, as it fried the back of the last Sharpclaw grunt's head.

The trio returned to the ship, guided by the glow of the fireflies on the sail, and landed, finding the other Cloudrunners had already landed. Ema was in the cockpit adjusting the secondary repulsion crystals to take the extra weight. Master Ti was talking to the largest, which had brightly painted wings, and had already had it's own muzzle removed.

Fox recognised the painted wings from his experiences on Sauria, wing leader markings, this was the head of a group of families that flew together, a sort of clan. For people who had just been rescued from slavery, their attitude was subdued. Krystal concentrated on their public thoughts, and her face fell. "Oh no..."

Fox could only sense the emotional tenor, and asked, "What's wrong?"

"It's horrible! We may have hurt them more than we helped!" Krystal exclaimed.

Master Ti turned to the air as they got down off Windam. "Krystal is correct. This clan of Cloudrunners were captured with their families, and now their aged and children are held captive at a abandoned temple in the foothills, against their good behaviour."

Windam added. "Destroying the entire patrol brought us a few hours, but when we don't return..."

"They will be killed!" stated the wing leader.

"Not as long as I have anything to say about it!" stated Fox grimly. "And I do!"

Ema nodded in agreement. "Exactly!"

Master Ti responded, "It goes without saying we will help to rescue them, but the temple has dozens of Sharpclaw warriors, and several larger ones that give the orders. If we are discovered, it will not only mean our deaths, but the deaths of their families."

Fox pulled out his PDA, and activated the mapping function. "I did it once before, I can do it again! With the Cloudrunners to tell us the layout, we should be able to figure out a way in. And with the four of us, we should be able to get everybody out."

**Author's notes:** Boy, this took longer than expected. I had a month of stuff happening, both good and bad, and was too busy to write. I hope people aren't too disappointed with the result. On the other hand, you get two chapters for one update. I had hoped to fit it in one, but there was just too much stuff to do.

Next chapter, we have an explosive adventure in, 'Fox McCloud and the temple goes BOOM!".

**Edit:** Since I had to chop that in two as well, the first half is actually 'As cunning as a fox...'


	10. As cunning as a fox

**Mission 10 – As cunning as a fox...**

Ema frowned at the fox as he started to act. "Trainee Fox, you are not in charge of this team, Master Ti is!"

Fox started to bridle at this, then paused and nodded. "Sorry, you're right. Force of habit, I'm used to leading missions. Master Ti, how do you want to handle this?"

"Thank you, Ema, Fox. As I was saying, this will require stealth, rather than force." The red panda thought for a few seconds. "For now, I would be interested in understanding how you would do this, Fox. While I have the final responsibility, it's true, you showed us you have previous experience of this kind task."

Fox nodded again. "Yep, this kind of infiltration and rescue mission is something I've done plenty of times. First we've gotta get under-way though. I'd like to know exactly how long we have before these guys are missed, but for now, the sooner we get to the right area, the better. Which way, Windam?"

The Cloudrunner pointed off towards the heart of the mountains. "The temple complex is about 12 ri in that direction. It's very old, overgrown, and was not built by my people. It may even be from before the Sundering!"

Krystal, rather than taking part in the conversation, had moved to the helm, turning to the new heading and looking up at the dimly illuminated wind streamers.

"Hmm... From the wind strength, almost at right angles to our current course... Three hours?"

Like the Cloudrunner, she was referring to the local hour, thirty six to the local day, Fox reminded himself. Less than two Cornerian standard by his own reckoning. He looked up at the streamers and made his own calculations from his recent experience piloting the New Dawn. "Sounds about right. Will that be soon enough?"

The wing leader ducked his beak to one side in some sort of gesture, possibly indicating thought. "Yes, we were settling for the night. We were to return to the temple at first light. If you can get our hostages away tonight..."

Fox smirked. "Works for me. Sleep is over-rated anyway. Master Ti?"

The red panda moved over by the cockpit. "By all means, set sail. Though we shall have to take care closer to the mountains. Indeed, we may have to ground well short of this place to be sure of a safe landing spot."

Fox understood the problem, while both vulpines and felines had exceptional night vision, starlight alone wasn't enough to see clearly. Fox pulled the zoom goggles from his backpack, putting them up to his face, he flicked through settings to night vision mode.

"These might help." He checked over the side, away from the deck still dimly illuminated by the fireflies. Where there had been the almost invisible shapes of the rolling forested foothills, starlight was enough to show them clearly, if only in shades of grey. He passed them to Krystal, who'd already set the course, and she started with surprise at the images.

"I can see the hills! You have some wonderful tools."

"Yeah, While they last." Fox moved around so everyone would be able to see him, and the hovering projector unit. The Cloudrunners started at it, and he wondered why. "No need to worry, it's just a way to show images."

"It doesn't shoot bolts of lightning?" asked one of the Cloudrunners.

"No, why..." Suddenly Fox had a flashback. He pulled up a battle recording, and zoomed in. "You've seen one of these?"

The way they moved back showed they had. The lens shaped device didn't look much like his holo-projector, it was a standard metre across, had knobs ringing it, and projected a scanning beam downwards. It was also something he'd seen far too often in the months where Team Star Fox and the Cornerian Defence Force had slowly liberated the captive worlds of Zoness and Macbeth after Andross's defeat, but this image was from Sauria, and the Cloudrunner Fortress.

Surprise made him revert to Lylatian. "Okay, my weirdness scanner has officially gone way over into the red zone. Where the heck did _this_ bunch of Sharpclaws get Venomian Interdictor drones?"

He switched back to Ancient with an effort. "These guard the area your families are held in?

"Yes, but how could you know?" asked the wing leader, in a puzzled tone.

"Met them before." Seeing the Protectors interested, he added. "They're machines that guard an area, and give a painful, but not lethal shock to unauthorised creatures passing through. They can be evaded, and while they're energy shielded, so staff blasts won't do much, hitting them hard enough from a distance can wreck them."

Ema grinned. "Now that's what I like to hear. A good clean fight!"

Fox shook his head. "Not right away. Our first priority is the hostages. As long as the Sharpclaws can get to them and we can't, they're holding a … a dagger to our throats. My suggestion is that we sneak in, secure an exit route for the hostages, and get them out, if possible without alerting the garrison."

"But won't destroying those machines do that anyway?" asked Ema, frowning.

"They're not patrol units. They're for keeping slave workers from leaving a place, not intruders from getting in. Of course, once the Cloudrunners are safe, then we can tear the place apart! Not only is it an enemy base, the only one we know of, but we may be able to gather valuable intelligence..."

Ema folded her arms, looking annoyed. "We're not stupid!"

Fox realised he'd translated the phrase literally, and sighed. "In this case the term means military information. Where do they come from, what are their goals, why are they capturing ships, how many are there, how many other groups... Somehow I can't believe that attacking isolated caravans and sky-ships for fun and profit is all there is to this."

He thought of something. "Wing leader... sorry, I'm Fox, and you are..."

"Vexor." Fox got introductions from the others, and went on. "Will all your people be able to fly?"

The large Cloudrunner shook his head. "No, some of our fledglings and elderly are weak. The Sharpclaws have fed them barely enough to keep them alive."

"Then we'd need to get the New Dawn as close in as possible, to carry them away. We'll need a canyon or something preferably just over a hill from the valley the temple is in, so we can dock deck level with the ground. If you guys can tow us in the last few hiro..."

He pulled up the mapping program, and started to plan, glancing at Master Ti who just gave a nod of approval.

"There!" Fox pointed out a figure silhouetted by a fire.

The temple complex lay spread out before them, nestled in a blind valley which faced roughly south. It was heavily forested on both walls, and much of the ground between. The main building was a stepped pyramid, built of massive stone blocks with repeating geometric patterns and open arched doorways on the higher levels. It reminded him of the architecture of the Walled City on Sauria.

It rose out of the forest growth, with a wide, flat top that was just high enough above their position that they couldn't see over it. Lesser buildings, square topped trapezoidal towers, were partly built into the steep sides of the valley. They were joined to it by walls that doubled as covered corridors, if the arched windows along their sides were any indication.

Much of the place was partially overgrown, but the main building was clear enough of growth that Fox wondered that Cloudrunner kingdom patrols hadn't found it themselves. Then he realised that the forest immediately around it was littered with debris, clearly the Sharpclaws had cleared away much of it. Besides, it was at the very borders of Cloudrunner territory, and even if they had found it before the Sharpclaws took up residence, it was not well designed for flyers, and had little to recommend it except isolation.

As they had approached the valley, the Cloudrunners had made short runs ahead to confirm their memory of the terrain. The four protectors lay arrayed along the ridge line of the valley wall to the east, while the New Dawn was moored against an out-cropping from the steep mountainside behind them, and the Cloudrunners were there too. They had helped tow the sky-ship to a safe mooring that put it's deck level with the top of the ridge.

Fox handed across the zoom goggles, still set to night vision, to the person next to him, Ema. "On the second level of the main pyramid, they have lookouts, one to the front and one on this side, each with a fire."

Ema smirked. "Fools! If they're staring into it like that, their night vision will be shot. We could fly the New Dawn right past them and they still wouldn't notice."

"If only." Fox sighed. "That top tier roof looks big enough to land the ship, but that fire would illuminate us, even if we came over the back. According to the Cloudrunners, their people are being held in a large chamber in the lowest tier, over on the right."

Privately he wished for some explosives. A properly placed shaped plasma charge, or a bomb seed if he could find one, would blow a hole even in those blocks of solid stone, and create an easy escape route. Of course, it would also bring the entire base running.

Master Ti took the goggles and used them. "It seems similar to a ruined temple I visited in my youth. The main building was fallen in on itself, but there were entrance ways in the centre of each side, on the lowest level. There should also be... yes, follow the line of the wall to the main temple. The top is a walkway, and there is a door at the end, and a Protector seal above it."

Fox couldn't see it without aid, but when he took back his zoom goggles, he saw it. The doorway was not easy to see against the patterning of embossed stone that covered the vertical surfaces, but now he knew what to look for, he could make it out. The seal was identical to the ones he'd come across on Sauria, activated by a fire blast from the Protector's staff. And the door was intact, suggesting the Sharpclaws had never used it.

"Hmm... we can improve on the basic plan then." The fox mused. "That wall is a couple of stories high where the ground drops away towards the centre of the valley. If you manoeuvred the New Dawn over the ridge and alongside it, anyone on the walkway could be transferred across quickly. In fact, looking at how steep the side of this valley is, I doubt those hostages would be able to make it up even with the able bodied Cloudrunners' help, given the state they're supposed to be in."

Ema responded, not sounding pleased. "That means one of us must stay behind to fly the New Dawn, and the Cloudrunners to help with the docking. They might be able to get it there without the sentry seeing, but staying there will invite trouble."

Fox shrugged. "If three can't do this, four won't. And we can co-ordinate." He reached over his shoulder and pulled something out of his pack, the duplicate PDA. He fiddled with it, and the one currently on his wrist. "Without a relay, the range is limited, but I've set up a basic voice link. When we've secured the hostages and are on our way out, I'll send a message to get into position. Once there, they can open the door with their staff."

He pressed an icon on the holo-interface that floated above his wrist, and his final words were heard in stereo both from him and the other PDA.

Krystal hadn't spoken until now, feeling awfully inexperienced by comparison to the other three. Now she voiced a concern. "I'd prefer to be in the rescue party, if possible." While she didn't say why, the two Protectors could sense she wanted an active role, to prove herself.

Fox wasn't concentrating on empathic impressions, but his knowledge of her made him think the same thing. He focussed on his still un-practised empathic ability and felt confirmation, and that Protector Raued was feeling the same way.

"I will stay." stated Master Ti, "I have the most experience of ship handling, and I sense all three of you wish to go down there. While I would like to take part, I feel all three of you will benefit from doing this together. Besides, I feel these old bones may not be able to keep up with you younglings."

That got a snort of derision from Ema, a smirk from Fox, and a hastily suppressed giggle from Krystal. The previous night, the New Dawn had landed well before sunset, to replenish it's supplies, both water and food. While hunting, Krystal had come across a valuable find, a grove of mature Dumbledang trees, heavy with fruit.

They collected all the ripe pods, and possibly because they had an ample supply of the local equivalent of fast heal drugs, Master Ti had decided to evaluate his students progress, followed by a four way Battle Royale. He hadn't quite demolished all three of them, but he'd demonstrated, without making a big deal of it, that he could take any one of them on and win, even Ema.

It wasn't that he was faster, or stronger, so much that he was never there when they struck, instead being tin the perfect position to thrust through your one weak spot. It wasn't like Fox's prescient sixth sense either. Fox later postulated that his long experience, coupled with his skill at empathy, meant he could feel what his opponents were going to do even as they did, and could therefore take countermeasures.

All in all, even if Fox had been inclined to underestimate this short red panda, he wouldn't any more. Which brought them back to the present, and Master Ti's orders.

"Ema, you will lead, but be mindful of Fox and Krystal's abilities, and use them to their fullest. You have trained them well, and both have their own talents. You are ready for this, and I believe you shall do well."

"I will, Master!" exclaimed the green tiger Protector.

The panda nodded. "Fox, you have the experience fighting these things. Please show me the operation of your device, and stand ready to give Ema the information she needs."

Fox simply nodded.

"And me, Master Ti?" Krystal asked, somewhat self consciously, wondering what she could bring to the mission other than another warm body.

Master Ti noticed this and smiled warmly. "Dear girl, your hunting skill, stealthiness and impressive empathic sensitivity for one so newly trained will make you the ideal scout, if scouting is needed. Relay your impressions back to Ema."

He widened his attention to cover the three of them. "Now go get them! May the Ancients guide you and protect you, all of you."

Showing the Master Protector how to operate the PDA took only a moment, then the trio started circling along the ridge line, towards the back of the valley and the tower, trusting to the tree line to conceal their outlines. Ema insisted on taking point, with Krystal and Fox behind her. Both as nominal leader of the group, and the biggest and strongest, she felt she should lead.

From a purely practical point of view it was wise too, as she carried a long knife that would have been a sabre to the shorter foxes, that made short work of any greenery blocking their path. Her staff was across her back, ready for instant release. The light from the distant fires gave just enough light for their natural night vision to allow them to pick their way, though Fox still had his zoom goggles up on his forehead.

Fox also carried his holstered blaster, and his training staff across his backpack. While not as versatile or powerful as the genuine article, it could still strike with greater force and precision than a regular quarterstaff, or as lightly as plastic tubing, in the hands of a someone with the mental powers to activate it.

The real staff was still with Krystal, who wore it across her back, and carried a sheathed long knife at her waist. Fox was surprised that neither of the Protectors had complained; as a trainee, she was no more officially supposed to wield a Protector staff than he was. But Krystal had more than proved she could handle it, adding to their fire-power, and giving her better defences.

He was still practising his empathic sense as they moved, and sensed her pleasure at that last public thought, as well as a slight nervousness. While he still couldn't read her public thoughts, or Protector Raued's, the sweet cinnamon sensation was clear enough that he didn't need to see her form, limned in fire-light from the Sharpclaw blazes, to know her location, The same went for the emerald tiger, who's presence was more a lime-citrus-acid gestalt, shot with emotions of excitement and confidence.

He could even sense their awareness of him, and was willing to bet their sensing range made their empathic ability at least as effective as the motion tracker capabilities of the wrist mounted component of his PDA. Thinking of that, he activated it, assigning the two spots on it a friendly status with quick swipes on the holo-interface. Unlike the one in a laughably written holo-adventure about Space Marines, it didn't make a giveaway clicking sound.

He just wished he'd managed to progress to telepathy, then they'd have a secure silent comm net, at least at short ranges. He'd asked about longer range telepathy during training, and been somewhat sarcastically asked by Ema if he'd ever tried to read a scroll from a dozen hiro away. Empathy had much greater range under the right circumstances, but unless an entire city was feeling a single emotion, a few hiro was about the limit.

As he'd mused, they'd worked their way around to the tower. It was built up against the cliff face, and peaked two stories above the ridge line, a set of windows around it's top story. Around the side facing the cliff, there were a few sparkles the wrong colour for stars, and investigating, they found a small grove of power plants, gems glowing brightly.

As they recharged their staffs, Krystal said, quietly, "This place has to have been used by the Protectors, even after the Sundering. I wonder why they left?"

Ema shrugged. "Nothing worth guarding I suppose. I don't remember any records of a Protector temple down here, but then I wasn't that in to studying history. My best skills are in the more practical stuff."

Fox decided there were greater depths to Protector Raued than he'd first thought. Being able to admit weaknesses as well as strengths was a good trait in a leader.

Too late he caught a sense of amusement from her, tinged with sarcasm. "Heh, glad you approve!"

Oh dang, had he thought that publicly? Embarrassed, he examined the tower wall and noticed something. "Hey look! We have a door here too, and it has a staff seal."

"Good!" Ema grinned, ivory teeth under luminous eyes, in the light of the remaining power plant gems. "I don't sense anything on the other side, do you, Krystal?"

Fox could feel her reaching out, and tried to follow. He was fairly sure there wasn't anybody in the room beyond, but he got the impression Krystal was reaching further.

Krystal shook her head. "I think the entire tower is empty."

Ema raised her staff and launched a low power fire blast at it, something Fox had never learned to do. The sound was muted, and though it might carry, it was unlikely to cause any reaction from the guards on the main pyramid. The blast was sufficient for the seal, and the door opened, quietly for something made of stone.

"Let's go! Stay silent until I say otherwise."

They entered and moved across the empty chamber within, which became dimly illuminated from flaring sconces engraved into the walls as they stepped inside, more than adequate for feline or vulpine low light vision. Beyond the chamber was the start of a set of ramps, leading both up and down. Ema motioned them forward, and the trio started downwards, the sconces lighting in turn as they moved.

There was a thin layer of undisturbed dust, which showed this part of the complex had lain undisturbed for a very long time. That was all to the good, the Sharpclaws clearly weren't using the place anything. The chambers on each level were unfurnished, only a few pieces of wood and scraps of cloth to indicate they were once occupied.

As they reached the level of the top of the wall, they found another staff sealed door, but bypassed it, as travelling along the top might expose them to discovery by the sentry. The level below was an open doorway into the windowed corridor connecting the tower to the main building, and Fox thought worried that if the sconces continued to light up as they passed, that might attract attention.

From the nod Krystal made over her shoulder, and her emotional tone, Krystal agreed with him, but Ema seemed confident... there was an impression overlaid on her emotions, like an after-image of text or an echo of speech, but not really either. Telepathy? If so, he couldn't quite get it, though Krystal seemed to as her emotions grew calmer.

Ema stopped by a familiar indentation to Fox, a staff interface, and plugged hers into it. A moments concentration, and the sconces dimmed to nothing, leaving only the reflected firelight through the windows ahead to show the way, and an illuminated doorway at the far end, some way into the pyramid from the range. They started to move, then Krystal started, holding up her hand, even as her mind echoed a sense of halting.

This time, Fox's impression of communication was even clearer, he got the general message that she'd sensed something up ahead, though it wasn't clear words. He could feel her dislike as she sensed a Sharpclaw, and relayed the feeling, a sensation he tasted as metal-iron-blood tinged. The dinosaur came into sight, silhouetted in the doorway, but didn't start down the corridor or look down it. Unfortunately, he didn't seem to be interested in moving on, either.

Ema's emotions took on a more martial tone, and he responded with negation. They might be able to sneak up on this guy and scrag him, but a single wrong move and he'd alert the whole base. He formed his thoughts as clearly as possible. 'There's a better way, something I've used before.'

The others looked at him in surprise, and he punched out a combination on his PDA. The holo-projector flew up over his head, and his form blurred. In a few seconds he'd been replaced by the figure of a Sharpclaw warrior, his training staff now a war axe. He thought, 'A disguise Slippy programmed for me. I can go up to the lizard openly, and remove him. Do you sense any others ,Krystal?'

She shook her head, and he could almost hear her voice saying 'No.' He looked to Ema for permission, and she nodded, emotions signalling assent. He walked forward, doing his best to remember the descriptions of how the Sharpclaws had acted around the Cloudrunners, the name they used.

He was only a few paces away from the Sharpclaw when it turned.

"Where you come from?" it asked in guttural Ancient.

'Well here goes...' Fox thought. He did his best to match the other's tone. "Got lost. Look for flap-things."

The other shook his head back and forth."Boss not let eat yet. Want little one, look tasty."

Fighting down the gorge that rose in his throat, Fox answered. "Maybe little one escape. Then we catch."

"Metal clouds guard. No escape. Get zap!"

Fox took a couple of steps back, looking over the Sharpclaw's shoulder and pointed. "But there one now!"

Even as the luckless guard turned, Fox was reaching over his shoulder, and his disguised staff was swept off his back into a two handed diagonal strike that crunched into the neck of the Sharpclaw. It's head bent at an odd angle and it's body slumped like a puppet with it's strings cut. Almost immediately, it flared out.

As he dropped out of his killing focus, he sensed the others coming up after him. Krystal's emotions were shock at the sudden violence, but thankfully not repulsion, though she seemed slightly ambivalent about his attacking from behind. Ema's reaction was more amusement.

"But there one now!" the tiger whispered, stifling a snort of laughter. "I can't believe that worked!"

"Wouldn't for long, but I didn't need long." Fox whispered back. "I had no choice but to take that guy down hard and fast. You understand Krystal?"

"Yes... sorry, I was ready for a straight fight."

Fox was relieved to feel as well as hear she understood. "I'm not proud of taking the cheap shot, but I'm not going to weep for him either. Those innocent Cloudrunners are far more important."

Krystal nodded, exhaling, and he felt her calming, becoming focussed. "You're right, neither am I."

**Authors Notes:** This and the next chapter were supposed to be a single one, but I decided to split it for easier reading. Don't worry, the boom I promised is coming soon enough. And in case you're wondering, the chapter title is from Blackadder, the full quote being 'as cunning as a fox who's just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University' and refers to cunning plans.


	11. Fox McCloud and the Temple goes BOOM!

**Mission 11 – Fox McCloud and the Temple Goes BOOM!**

They were now at an entranceway to a t-junction onto a well lit passageway, runes glowing on the walls, as well as more frequent sconces, and signs of passage. There was no obvious sign of a further ramps, down or up. Fox stepped out to look, while the others stepped back into the unlit corridor, Ema indicating silence again.

According to the Cloudrunner description, the holding chamber would be off to their right and several more levels down, but was that the best way to go. He decided to try something that had worked a few times on Sauria. He gripped the disguised staff, closed his eyes, and thought about the best route to take.

As it had happened on Sauria, suddenly he could see the passage gliding past, as if a remote holo-cam was flying down it. The passage opened out into a room, and the viewpoint turned right down a spiral ramp, dropping two levels before flying down another passage and into a larger chamber full of cages. There were doorways to the right, and on the far side, and Interdictor robots hovered over them, illuminating the thresholds with their sensor beams.

'You saw that?' He thought to them, and got back agreement mixed with surprise. He thought back 'What? It's one of the first things I learned to do when I picked up the staff, I heard Krystal, the other Krystal, tell me that I should learn to 'heed the staff's call through my hands, and see what lies beneath'. Then I had my first vision.'

Ema responded out loud, or rather out quietly. "But that's not... No, we'll talk about this later, for now take the lead. If we do run into any Sharpclaw you distract we'll have a few more heartbeats to act. Krystal, keep seeking with your empathic sense."

The last part was a single word in Ancient, akin to 'listening' for hearing. The other two were attuned to her and would sense her sensing any threat. The trio moved forward in silence, following Sharpclaw-Fox.

They made it to the first chamber without incident, then Fox stopped dead, looking around. The other two could feel his surprise, but the exact nature was unclear. There was an entrance to another passage on the far end of the left wall, and the arch that lead to the spirals on the right, but the room was stacked with wooden crates, with a strange symbol on the side, three curved arms reaching from the centre at 120 degree angles. There was also a stack of metal barrels to one side.

In response to an impatient mental prod from Ema, Fox started forward again, damping down his emotions as he lead down the ramp, which also carried on up. Krystal was starting to get an impression of more Sharpclaw warriors, a large number, but it was distant, below and towards the other side of the pyramid.

It became clear why this ramp was disused, the stone was worn, even cracked, and half the lights were out or flickering, due to trickles of water that had eroded their way down the walls. But the floor seemed solid enough, and at least they shouldn't meet anyone.

The lower corridor was just as empty, but the room opposite the ramp wasn't; filled with more metal barrels and crates, similar to the ones above. The others felt Fox's confusion even more clearly, but the exact reasons were unclear, as if he knew what was going on, but wouldn't let himself accept it. They knew what the items were, they'd seen both in his presentation but if there were other things from Sauria here, why was he so puzzled?

They got to the prison chamber without incident. Fox had already suggested a way to deal with the Interdictor drones, and as he dropped his disguise, Krystal stepped forward into the doorway, raising her staff shield as Ema came in under it and struck with her own staff.

The drone's lightning bolt was stopped, but the shield didn't interfere with the return shot, and the unarmoured robot's hull was smashed in. It tumbled out of the air and smacked into the stone floor, spitting sparks. Fox stepped in after them and kicked it to one side as they looked around.

There were over a dozen adult Cloudrunners here, slumped on various parts of the floor. Some had children nestled under protecting wings, while others had welts that showed they'd worn saddles, or been struck. Unlike the Cloudrunner Fortress, there were no cages, but the heavy shackles and chains on the adults served the same purpose. The sudden entrance of the three Protectors disturbed them out of their listless state, causing the nearer ones to look up, and hug their children closer.

Ema spoke up. "Don't be scared, we're Protectors, and we're here to rescue you!".

"But how..." One of the nearest Cloudrunner females said, standing. Her faded wing paint, and fluting on the trailing edges of her wings showed she was senior, both in age and responsibility.

"Heh! Those green goons bit off more they could chew when they attacked our ship!"

Krystal added, "It's alright, your families are all safe. They're with our ship, the 'New Dawn'. All we have to do is get you out of here and it will carry you to safety."

Fox was already moving over to the female. "Hi, I'm Fox, that's Krystal, and the big green lady over there..."

"Can introduce herself! Protector Ema Raued, at your service. First we need to free them."

"On it!" Fox examined the shackle and the Cloudrunner flinched as he drew his staff. He noted that, and added it to the bill the Sharpclaws were going to have to pay. However, he projected all the reassurance he could as he said, "It's okay, I'm just checking your bracelet. Y'know, I don't think it's this season's fashion. Hold still."

He shifted a bit of stone under the hinge to support it, and struck down double handed, but carefully, with the point of the training staff. The hinge cracked, and the shackle fell away.

"Um... Fox?" Krystal was over by the far wall, where the other entrance was, just out of range of the Interdictor. She pointed to the key hanging up on a hook on the far side of the doorway.

Fox grinned. "Okay, that'd work too."

Krystal and Ema repeated their previous performance and got the key, and between that and multiple staff strikes, it was only a couple of minutes before all the Cloudrunners were freed. Ema got them organised, while Fox triggered his PDA communicator. The Great Fox, or even his Arwing comm system could have punched a clear signal through the walls, but between two unboosted PDA comms, the transmission was weak, barely enough for a voice signal. But that was sufficient.

"Fox calling the 'New Dawn'. Come in Master Ti!"

The red panda's voice was tinny and crackled. "Fox? You have them?"

"Yup! All the birds are free, and we're on our way out!"

Fox did some calculations in his head as the Cloudrunners formed up. They were light for their size, but carrying them was going to stretch the New Dawn's lift capacity to it's limit. Maybe the able bodied ones could take it in turns to fly alongside. Ema took point, while Krystal moved to the centre to help a particularly decrepit oldster, and Fox took tail position.

The line of Cloudrunners was halfway into the spiral when Krystal looked back. "Oh no, I think we're about to have company..."

To under-point her words, there was a yowl and hiss from the chamber, and the guttural voice of more than one Sharpclaw. One appeared silhouetted in the wide doorway, and toppled backwards as a blaster bolt from Fox punched through his chest plate.

"I'm coming back to help..." started Ema, only to be interrupted by Fox.

"No! What if they've flanked us, gotten ahead? You're the only cover these guys have!" gone was the subordinate attitude, this was Fox McCloud, leader of Team Star Fox, laying down the law. "The leader gets the mission done. Our mission is to get these people out. Don't make our actions worthless by forgetting that!"

As he spoke he drew a bead on another Sharpclaw, only to see it fall from a staff blast. Krystal was standing beside him, staff held level, and a determined expression on her face, which matched the steel toughness of her emotions. On the ship, she'd had no time to be scared. Now she was, but she was fighting it, and not one whit showed outwardly.

He continued, as the last Cloudrunner entered the ramp. "We can hold them, you get the Cloudrunners to the ship! We'll join you later!"

"Fine! But if either of you die, I'm going to kill you!" came the illogical but heartfelt response.

Krystal could sense Fox analysing the area, figuring out the best way to deal with the Sharpclaws massing inside the chamber. No more showed themselves for an easy kill, but the shapes indicated there were a lot of them. Single shots wouldn't break a rush through the doorway, not the way Sharpclaws kept coming. Charged shot? Still too focussed, and hitting the lintel might cause a blockage, or it could simply widen the door.

Suddenly a plan formed in his public mind, and she moved instantly to do her part, covering him as he hauled down barrels and laid them on their sides. As the rush finally started, he kicked off the three fuel barrels, smoothly but forcefully. They rolled down the passage, forming a rolling impediment to the Sharpclaw advance, and more.

It checked the front row, holding them in place as Krystal and Fox stood side by side, methodically taking down over-eager front runners. Three or four spears arced over the front rows towards the foxes, but Fox simply swayed out of the way of one that would have hit him in the head, while Krystal spun her staff in a defensive block that batted the other out of the air.

It took only a moment for the attackers to use the momentary break in fire and straddle the impediment. That was when the two foxes shifted their aim, and a combined blaster bolt and Fire Blast struck the centre barrel dead centre.

The explosion knocked the pair back, but not down, not quite. The majority of the warrior had been destroyed, presumably disintegrating as their kind seemed to, and the remaining ones were on the floor, and not getting up any time soon.

"Now that's how you do a barrel roll!" Fox said, putting up his blaster, and Krystal giggled, understanding the context from his clear mental image of a certain old rabbit giving flight advice. Not that either was actually hearing the other, the sound had been near deafening.

Heading up the ramp, they found the tail end of the procession still hadn't reached the starting level, let alone the one above where the door was. Ema's relief at sensing their return was palpable. Fox was looking back down the ramp and wondering if he should have rigged a booby trap, when Krystal shook her head. "More of them on this level, coming both ways..."

Fox heard the thought rather than the words, his ears were still ringing from the blast, but didn't even realise it. He squeezed past the few Cloudrunners between him and the exit, Krystal following. This time Ema didn't argue, though they could sense her anger at not being able to join them, tempered with reluctant acceptance that she had to do her part too.

Fox yanked down a stack of crates to scatter across the floor, forming obstacles to break up a charge. But this time he didn't have chance to 'do a barrel roll' before Sharpclaw started coming down both corridors into the chamber. Almost back to back, Fox took the left corridor in a marksman's stance, while Krystal took the right.

Raptor after raptor fell, but aimed shots took time, and the remainder got ever closer. None had spears, but there were plenty of maces and axes to go around. Finally Fox had to drop his blaster and draw his staff as two of his charge made it past the last of the boxes.

He leapt and brought his staff down in a strike that ended one of them right there, then fell back to avoid a swung mace, coming up with another strike that smashed the elbow of the arm wielding it, and following up with a combo under-sweep and thrust that left the Sharpclaw off balance, then caved in his breastplate.

The Protector staff was a slightly less powerful ranged weapon, and Krystal wasn't quite as practised, plus there had been fewer boxes fallen on her side. So four of the creatures got into striking range. She swung her staff across at head height, triggering the Ice Spray, which blinded and disoriented them, and held it on the end one, who froze up.

Fox noticed she was outnumbered, and cursed that he hadn't switched places before they got into a melee, but she was holding her own and more. The frozen one shattered from a well placed thrust, and Krystal faded back, circling to put the line between her and Fox. He didn't need a hint, diving in on his end of the line and smashing the confused Sharpclaw grunt to the floor. His follow-up made sure it would never get up again.

This gave the last two time to recover, but it made no difference, Fox and Krystal were both focussed on the fight,and each other, almost en rapport. Both Sharpclaws struck down with their axes, only to have the hafts blocked by twin staffs. Synchronised kicks to the belly using the leverage provided threw the two warriors together, and disarmed one, and together the two foxes, working as one delivered the coup de grace.

Krystal was breathing hard, but so was Fox. The vixen shook herself out of her own combat focus and exclaimed, "My goodness, I... I did it!"

"You certainly did! Stood your ground and kicked tail. Looks like all that work with Ema paid off!" Fox said, grinning broadly. Krystal could feel his approval.

'It helped that I had a partner I could rely on to back me up.' she thought.

"Same here. Can you sense the Cloudrunners?"

Krystal looked distant for a second, and he felt her senses reaching further again. "They're... out of the spiral and going out the door. I think Ema had to clear away a few Sharpclaws herself."

"Well lets..." Fox stooped down to recover his blaster and noticed one of the crates had cracked open, spilling some of it's contents. Venomian make timed detonators, the sort he'd found on improvised fuel barrel bombs. "... make sure no-one follows them."

He scooped up half a dozen along with the blaster, and put most of them in a side pocket of his backpack. A couple he held on to, and set them against barrels, adjusting switches. "Okay, when the light goes red, we have two minutes to get to a safe distance. If only these things could remote trigger..."

He set a timer on his PDA, then pressed a switch on one, then the other, and they started flashing. "Time to leave!"

They dashed up the remaining spiral, and along the corridor. Even as they did, Fox's comm software activated again.

Master Ti spoke. "Fox, the last Cloudrunners are coming aboard now, but there are Sharpclaw on the upper balconies, moving large metal things out... like shields with a large tube protruding, I think they're those cannon from your record. Ema's trying to clear them, but there's too many..."

"Then lift off as soon as you have everyone on, don't wait for us!" Fox called out, "If they catch you moored, no-one will get out! We'll try to give you fire support!"

Fox knew Sharpclaw, or rather Venomian-built cannon well. They used explosive shells, but the 'propellant' was a basic kinetic force field generator, allowing fine control of the range. When he'd used them, he'd managed to charge the force field with his staff, not having the code to activate the power, but these guys didn't have that problem. One of those shells hitting a light wooden hull...

The two foxes redoubled their pace, and burst out of the door onto the walk-way on the top of the wall. On the higher levels of the main pyramid, at least three turrets were being dragged out on lifter-skids by teams of Sharpclaw, and the bonfire was blazing up.

Meanwhile, the New Dawn was setting it's sails, even as the last Cloudrunner was helped on board. Other Cloudrunners were flying up, and you could just see the cables they were holding if you had low light vision. Blasts of fire were coming from the starboard rear side of the New Dawn, but they were far enough away that few were hitting even the crew of the nearest cannon.

Fox had his blaster out just as the first cannon set itself. It fired, and the explosive shell arced down to blow a hole in the wall just astern of the New Dawn, big enough to fly a Cloudrunner through. Half the roof, or walkway was gone as well, like a bite out of a cake. You could see the barrel traverse slightly, so the next time would be a direct hit.

However, Fox had come to a halt as soon as he was sure of a clear shot, and he was already starting a charged shot. There were an endless few seconds, and then he fired. His aim was slightly low, but it made no odds. A big chunk of the ledge under the cannon was vaporised, scorching Sharpclaw with molten rock, and the cannon, deprived of it's support, toppled forward down the side of the pyramid. It ended up upside down on the next level, surrounded by flaring Sharpclaw corpses.

The other cannon were slower to anchor themselves, and the New Dawn lifted, but so slowly, despite the efforts of over a dozen Cloudrunners. A trio of Sharpclaw grunts appeared at the pyramid door and Krystal turned and moved to engage them, covering Fox. One went down to a Fire Blast, while the other two engaged her in a furious melee.

A larger Sharpclaw was directing the fire of the central cannon, and said something that Fox heard clearly, but didn't want to accept. Fox had to move further along to get a viable trajectory on the cannon, and in that time the furthest one got off a shot.

It had swung to bear on the sky-ship, but overshot slightly, and the shot barely clipped it's starboard wing-sail. That was enough though. The wing-sail disappeared in a cloud of flame and smoke, and when it cleared, all that was left were stubs of yards, and a few shattered splinters hanging from shreds of sail and tatters of rigging.

Fox lined up on the middle one first, prepping another charged shot, and wrecked the upper works before it could fire, and taking out the Sharpclaw Alpha. Then he took the far one, and managed to connect with it's magazine. All the explosive shells went at once, and a whole section of the pyramid wall vanished in an explosion that illuminated the whole valley. Debris from it penetrated the far gun's damaged workings and must have hit some critical component, because it exploded in a secondary, but still impressive explosion.

When the dust cleared, you could see a massive hole had been punched in the side of the pyramid, exposing rooms and levels, like a cut-away drawing, and what looked to be a large central chamber as tall as the pyramid and as wide as the entire roof, which looked to be able to fold down from what he could see of the underside. It was bathed in a gentle yellow glow..

Fox looked at the wrist control of his PDA and called out, "There's still one big bang to come! Besides I need to see... C'mon, to the tower!"

He waited for Krystal to start running ahead, then raced off down the walkway, noting that the New Dawn was going over the ridge. They skirted the gaping hole, and didn't stop until they reached the tower door. Krystal raised her almost exhausted staff and triggered the seal, and they dashed inside.

Fox started up the stairs, and Krystal followed. They reached the highest chamber out of breath, muscles burning, but Fox moved over to a window on the side facing the pyramid. From here, he could see down into the chamber, and found what he'd expected to see. Part of the floor was like a stained glass window, slightly cambered, and glowing yellow.

The entire central chamber was built around a warp pad, but big enough to hold a regiment, or a medium sized sky-ship. He pulled down his zoom goggles, and focused in. Yes, there were stacks of supplies, even some jet-bikes along the edge of the chamber, and banners that he thought he'd never see again, the same tri-bladed symbol he'd seen on the crates.

He checked his PDA, only a few seconds more... "Get down!"

Krystal complied, but asked, "Surely we're far enough away?"

"I don't know. What I do know is that those other explosions were on the outside and blew inwards. This one will be inside. There's going to be debris, and I'm not sure how far it's going to be thrown..."

He punched his wrist holo-display, and it went from hovering flat over his PDA to upright. Krystal could follow the Cornerian symbols counting down on the timer centred in it as Fox was mentally counting down with them.

"5... 4... 3... 2... 1..." There was a moment of silence. "Maybe I was a few seconds..."

They felt the noise, the vibration. It died away, but Fox hissed, "Stay down!" as Krystal started to rise. She heard a pattering from above like rain on the roof, and as it died away, Fox gave a sigh of relief. "Okay, any flying debris should have dropped by now."

They moved to the window to see the results. An entire corner of the pyramid was gone, the hole reaching almost to the one left by the magazine explosion, and from the internal illumination, it had breached the central chamber as well. Sharpclaw were fleeing, on foot and by jet bike and there was a creaking of tortured stone.

"Whoa, I didn't think it'd be that powerful..." Fox almost whispered.

Even as he spoke, the groan rose to a shriek, and the central part of the Temple collapsed in on itself, covering the exposed warp pad. Fox exhaled, and Krystal sensed it was an exclamation made up of equal parts of relief and regret.

"What?" she asked. "You've been thinking about something, your thoughts are clouded, but this all ties to your surprise at the things they had... What's wrong?"

She was interrupted by the beeping of Fox's wrist unit, and the pop up of a flat holo-image of Master Ti. "Fox, what's happened? Are you both safe?"

Fox made adjustments, popping a second screen showing his end of the conversation, and moving the holo-cam viewpoint from focussing on his face, to scanning the room. "We're safe, both of us. Are you guys okay?"

"No-one was hurt, thankfully, but with our wing-sail gone our ability to manoeuvre is almost gone. We can jury-rig a spare, but we'll have to set down to do it, and that will take some time. It's taking all the efforts of the Cloudrunners just to keep us in the air. That's why I was asking, we won't be able to come back to collect you right away, and I don't think any of the Cloudrunners will be able to fly again before tomorrow. When I saw the explosion, I feared for you both."

Fox made the holo-viewpoint look towards the window where the remains of the temple were visible. "Their own fault for leaving explosive stuff where any fox with a bit of skill at making things go boom could just trip over them. They won't be attacking from there any time soon. We'll be fine... looks like we'll have to be!"

"Then I shall leave you both to your rest." He sighed ruefully. "It will be several hours before Ema and I can do the same."

As he switched off, he noticed Krystal standing there, arms folded, radiating impatience and worry.

"Okay, sorry, this is kinda confusing. To start with, that temple was actually a Warpway, and I think it was one capable of reaching Sauria, even though it's back in the Lylat system. I'm sure of it, because that's where the Sharpclaw are coming from. And that's where the ships they capture are going to, some at least. The entire roof was built, or modified to fold out of the way so you could drop a ship in.

"But that's not the thing which has me worried, they're not just any Sharpclaw, they're General Scales army. And yet they can't be. Not unless what happened to me when that gate went kablooie on me was even weirder than I first thought. The only way I can figure it, I didn't just get thrown across space, I've been sent back in time, at least three years.. I said it was confusing."

Krystal felt his certainty, but that he still wasn't telling her everything. "That's... a rather strange idea to have. Could they not be using left overs from when General Scales took over?"

Fox sighed. "You think Team Star Fox does half a job? After Scales and Andross went down, we spent a month in orbit around Sauria, helping with the clean-up. We dumped all their war material on the largest asteroid in the debris ring. And during the Aparoid war, they weren't willing to take cover in the deep caves."

Krystal knew something of the Aparoid war from the talks they'd had while flying the New Dawn. He hadn't stated it, but she could imagine the situation.

"They lost a lot of their remaining population. In short they don't have the stuff, or the people to fight a war, and if they'd started getting aggressive again, Tricky, King Earthwalker would have let me know."

"However, these goons have identical banners, identical equipment, and I even heard an Alpha call out, 'Destroy them! General Scales will reward you!' I don't think it was some kind of religious thing, Sharpclaw don't really do that, and Scales was defeated, not something they'd revere. Besides, there's another proof, you."

"Me? You mean because I'm like the Krystal you met there, only younger?"

Fox sighed deeply, and she suddenly realised that he'd been denying this whole thing because he wanted to avoid hurting her. "You're the spitting image of her, you think and act like her, and most of all, you use her staff without any adjustment. But you're right, you're not her, not yet, and never will be because I ended up here. Though I have to keep reminding myself of that.

"I still don't know what sent me here, but now I know why, I'm certain. In the original scheme of things you'd have returned too late, to find your family... gone. You went with the Protectors, and became one yourself. You were dedicated, skilled, and when this business turned into a full scale war, you fought, but..."

He was trying to find a way to say it. "Andross tried to draw the life energy from Sauria to empower himself, turn into some sort of super being. I don't know whether that's what he wanted from Cerinia, but I know your older self believed that he destroyed Cerinia in the process. At the same time, you were transported to Sauria.

"I'm now sure I'm here to stop that, save Cerinia from destruction, but in the process I may doom Sauria, heck the whole Lylat system. My younger self needs the staff you left there to complete his mission. Without the payment for that mission, we won't be able to upgrade the Great Fox, and without the up-grades, we may not be able to stop the Aparoid invasion."

He slumped against the wall, utterly spent. "I had my suspicions earlier, but I didn't want to face it. What a mess!"

Krystal knew it sounded crazy, but she felt his utter certainty, and his sorrow, and his sense of responsibility for this situation. To her own surprise found she accepted what he'd said implicitly. She moved over and sat down beside him, reaching over with one arm to hug him close.

"It will be alright, you'll see. You feel that the fate of the world, no several worlds are on your shoulders, again. But I've seen your history, you've been there before, and always come through. And you don't have to do it alone. Let me help shoulder the load. I will be there, every step of the way. You... no, _we_ will find a way, I'm not sure how, but we will save Cerinia from this Andross, and your home too."

She felt him calm as he relaxed into her hug. "Thanks, Krystal." He murmured. "As long as you're here beside me, you make me feel maybe things will work out after all."

Reaction had set in and they both found they were exhausted. There were no more words, just a feeling of mutual support and comfort, until first Fox, then Krystal dropped off to sleep.

**Author's notes: **Well it took long enough, I just hope people feel it was worth the wait. Man that last bit was hard to write. Action scenes are easy, emotions are hard, and when both characters are empathic, it makes it even trickier. I've been working towards this since the beginning, and dreading it.

I hope no-one feels that Fox's psychic abilities are developing too rapidly. I put it down to the fact that his training took him to near the threshold of advancing to telepathy, and being in a high stress situation pushed him the rest of the way, though at the moment, it's only Krystal he'll be able to understand with any ease.

Oh, I finally found a high res play-though of Star Fox Command on Youtube. I already read all the dialogue at Star Fox Online, and felt the characterizations sucked, and the way they handled the relationships were ropy, verging on ridiculous. I hoped seeing it in the context of the game would make sense, but it didn't. The lack of proper voice acting and fixed expression sprites did nothing to help, heck, Star Fox 64 had more animated characters.

A pity, the game is actually quite cool and innovative, and the designs of the planet surfaces are nice. But the plot makes zero sense. Krystal, an Andross apologist? The guy destroyed her fricking planet! Fox apparently rolling odds or evens as to whether he's making up with Krystal or driving her away.

Oh well, in my universe, it never happened. So, next, we visit the Cloudrunner Kingdom in 'Fox gets Flashy!'


	12. Hot Springs and Cold Courage

**Mission 12 – Hot springs and cold courage!**

Fox awoke with a start. Early morning light streamed in through the narrow, unglazed windows of the tower room, and the mountain air was cold on his face. But what was missing was the comforting warmth of a vixen lying against him. His last memory was of her wrapping the cloak she'd been carrying over them both...

He looked around, both the cloak and the vixen carrying it were no-where to be found. He slipped off a glove and felt the floor beside him. It was stone cold. Where-ever she'd gone, she been gone for some time. He jumped up, activating his motion tracker and stretching his still developing empathic sense to the farthest extent of it's limited reach.

Nothing. He sprung up, drawing his blaster and staff. His muscles protested at the way he'd been sleeping, slumped against a wall, but he ignored them. Only finding Krystal mattered. He could sense far enough to tell she wasn't on the roof, so he headed down the ramps, every sense stretched to it's limit.

As he descended he mentally kicked himself, the door to the ridge and the one to the walkway were wide open. He should have secured the area, anything could have come in while they were sleeping. Had Krystal gone outside, or had something come in? He still sensed nothing, so he decided to check the rest of the interior before going outside.

As he went below the level of the wall, he sensed something, but it wasn't what he wanted. The blood iron mental tang of Sharpclaw grunts, and one that was akin to theirs, but it's thoughts were clearer,sharper, but that didn't make them any more enjoyable. He sped up, moving down towards them, only to finally sense Krystal...

She seemed utterly relaxed, at peace... He called out, but got no response, as the Alpha had spotted her... instinct to kill warring with orders, orders to capture! Her mind finally showed alertness, too late, the Alpha had her... he got a distinct tightness in his own throat as he sensed her more clearly, the goon had her by the neck, holding her off the ground. Fox started running.

One of the grunts had her staff, there were three... He was getting impressions of the situation from the emotions and vagrant public thoughts he could sense, mostly through Krystal, but it was like trying to watch 5 different holo-windows playing different transmissions during an ion storm. He could feel her fear tinged helplessness, tinged with determination to get un-helpless as soon as possible.

She was being led up... he sensed her sudden relief as she extended her own empathic sense and caught him, embarrassment too, but why? He dismissed the question, there was no time to wool gather. Since he was getting some clear sense of direction, they must be close, and she should sense his public thoughts as clear as day. 'I'll ambush, be ready...' He thought, and felt her agreement, if not her words.

He was at the lowest level of the ramp, which opened onto a wide, columned chamber that supported the lower levels. They'd have to come through this area, to reach the ramp up, so he faded back behind a column. He heard voices, Krystal's and a guttural tone that could only be the Alpha.

"Where are you taking me?" Krystal's voice, defiant, unbowed.

"Our leader, General Scales, wants the ones who destroyed this place." A cruel pleasure as vague images of torment passed over the Alpha's mind.

"He's here on Cerinia?" Surprise, and a sudden determination to gather whatever information she could. To end Scales and his threat quickly.

"We have other Warp-ways. Your attack was a small set-back. The General is on Sauria, which is where you will be taken. He will find out everything you know, and you will wish you knew more, before he finishes with you. Then he will impale you on that staff and spit roast you. Your allies will receive the same treatment."

A sneering enjoyment of control, and a dreadful hunger, the Alpha was clearly being literal, and expected to be invited. Fox felt slightly nauseous, and glad he wasn't good enough to sense the images in the Alpha's more alien mind.

"Other warp-ways? Where?" There was a sudden explosion of pain, echoed in Fox's own cheek, as Krystal was back handed by the Alpha.

"Silence! You know enough to feel despair, you need no more. Not that you can escape, or pass on your knowledge."

'That's what he thinks...' Fox thought as clearly as possible, and felt it hearten the vixen. They were almost here... The Sharp-claw strode arrogantly out, followed by Krystal, held by two Sharpclaw and with a third holding his axe ready to strike. He also had Krystal's staff thrust through his belt.

But it was Krystal who held his attention, she was dripping wet, and dressed in nothing more than the fur she'd been born with. It put him out of commission for a few seconds, he might not be a hormonal teenager, but neither was he a eunuch. It took a few seconds to get his emotional reactions under control, but he did, and forced himself to analyse the tactical situation.

She in turn showed nothing of her own clearly felt embarrassment at his gaze, other than a slight blush that reddened the skin under her white cheek fur. There was no sudden start, or motion to cover up, that might alert her captors to the hidden watcher. She was... magnificent, wet, bedraggled, but with her head held high and her stride was that of a princess, not a prisoner.

He exchanged quick thoughts with her, laying out his plan, and got her agreement. The group was halfway across the floor when he made his move. Moving out behind them, he punched a regular blaster shot through the trailing Sharpclaw's head, angling so it would bypass Krystal if anything got through. The dino disintegrated, letting the staff drop.

As he'd hoped, the surprise caused the other grunts to loosen their grip as they turned to find out what had happened, and Krystal acted, throwing herself into a backwards flip that caught the staff even before it hit the floor. She came up, holding her staff out in a guard pose, triggering it to extend.

The guards closed, diving in to fight, and Fox couldn't risk firing into the melee for fear of hitting Krystal. Instead, he attempted to take out the Alpha, but it was smarter than it's brethren, spotting him and moving towards him even as he lined up a shot. Fox hoped to question it, so he shot for it's knee, rather than it's head.

It managed to evade, barely, and ran in to attack, un-slinging a massive double handed battle-axe as Fox switched to his staff. It's first sweep he ducked, the blade passing barely over head and striking sparks from the pillar he'd used as cover. He assayed a thrust at it's lower body, but it moved unreasonably fast for something that bulky, the staff barely scraping it's kirtle.

Rather than withdraw, he followed the thrust, diving past the Alpha and tumbling forward to spin and reverse strike into the side of it's leg. There was a crunch, but it didn't go down, instead turning to face him and bringing it's axe down in a massive over-arm swing.

"You! Well, General Scales will have to be satisfied with your corpse!" the Alpha howled.

Rather than try and block the momentum, Fox drew his staff back and brought it into a guard position at an angle. He guided the thrust to one side where it slammed into the floor, raising more sparks and cracking one of the flagstones. In reaction the strike pushed him to the side, so he used the momentum, spinning round to strike again at it's legs.

This time it went down, but not before he had to jump out of the way of raking claws that smacked into his shoulder and tore down his jacket. Fortunately the reactive material hardened under the impact, and allowed no purchase, though he'd have one heck of bruise just from the initial hit.

With the Alpha down, Fox moved away and turned to check on Krystal. She'd already dealt with one, and as he moved towards her, she sprang back, bounding off a pillar to gain height and crushed it's helm in with a mighty descending blow. She landed crouched and panting, her excitement obvious, and Fox once again had to focus his attention elsewhere, lest he embarrass them both.

He shucked his back pack, and took off his jacket, holding it out to her without looking. "I think you'll need this, and a towel."

He knelt down by his pack, and after a few seconds removed a block about the size of a large book, with the surface texture of a loofah. It was white and had a red winged fox on it. He pressed one corner, and the electrostatic charges that held the threads parallel were discharged into storage elements in the warp and weft of it. The threads separated and the towel expanded to it's full size, over a metre and a half by three-quarters, and exposed the hydrophilic molecules that lined the sides of each thread.

Like the jacket earlier, he held it out behind him, and waited until it was taken off him. Then he moved back towards the Alpha, trying not to think about the blue fox behind him, and not helped by the amusement he sensed as he didn't quite succeed. Fortunately the Alpha was very good at focussing his attention. It managed to throw itself forward with just arms and one leg, trying to grapple him.

Fox bounded back out of the way of it's desperate lunge, drawing his staff and fending one arm off with such force the bone snapped. "Dang, you guys just don't give up!"

It tried to push itself forward, but slumped, clearly immobilised, then brought it's one usable arm up to it's neck, driving it's claws in. It flared and evaporated at his feet. He'd sensed it's intent to die rather than surrender, but not soon enough to do anything about it. The one other clear thought he'd caught was that the others would find their sky-ship...

"Uh oh!" Fox turned back to Krystal, now dry, who had the jacket draped over her and the wet towel wrapped around her waist. He picked up his back pack and said, "We've got to go, there are others out there, and they're hunting for the New Dawn!"

"I've got to get dressed first..." Krystal replied, and headed into the building, only to stop at the sensations she was feeling from Fox.

Now that the time for fighting had passed, he could think, and with it came anger. "What did you think you were doing in the first place? This is still enemy territory, we saw them out there! But you wandered off, without waking me, without any back-up!"

She looked shocked, Fox hadn't ever so much as raised his voice to her before. "You looked so peaceful lying there, I didn't want to wake you. I was just going down to recharge my staff, then I thought I'd look around. I can take care of myself!"

Fox kept a tight grip on his temper, but she could feel it, the underlying worry and something else. "Maybe under normal circumstances, but not when you're relaxing in a bath!" He followed her down, still looking for any other surprises. "You should have come up and gotten me, and I could have stood guard while you bathed."

She tried to lighten the mood. "You seemed pretty distracted when I appeared, would you have been able to keep your mind on guarding?"

It didn't work. She could still feel his anger, and fear for what could have happened. "Yes! This isn't a joking matter, if they hadn't been intent on taking prisoners you would be dead!"

He felt her genuine hurt at his harsh words, and that was when his anger vanished, leaving only the worry that caused it, and his own guilt. "I'm sorry, but it's true. And the best part of me would have died along with you."

He sighed and continued. "I share at least some of the blame, I didn't make sure the area was secure before we settled down to sleep. You're still new to this, I keep forgetting, but I'm the veteran. I should have made sure..."

She tried to stem the self-recrimination she sensed. "You were distressed, not thinking clearly..."

"Which would have made not one bit of difference if you'd been hurt as a result!" Fox looked downcast.

"I'm sorry Fox, I'll be more careful next time." She was chastened, and he could feel it. Maybe he'd been too hard on her...

"Next time?" He looked up, finally throwing off his own dark emotions to give her some emotional first aid. Now he could find humour in the situation. "If you're going to make this a regular thing, I'm going to run through the happy pills in the medi-kit pretty darned fast. Speaking of which..."

Krystal could sense the twinge in his bruised shoulder as his back pack shifted slightly. "We can take the time to check it, I sense you want to go find Master Ti and Ema, but you'll do them no good if you're injured."

"I've had worse... I was thinking more of that slap that tail-sniff... uh, Alpha gave you."

Krystal rubbed her cheek. "It's alright, it stung, but I could sense it coming and rolled with the blow. Doesn't feel like a bruise."

Fox activated the communications function of his PDA, but got no signal from the other. Actually that was comforting,the building must be shielding him, but they must also be a good distance away to lose signal completely.

The two foxes entered the bath chamber and Fox could see why she had been distracted. The vaulted chamber was clearly built back into the living rock, originally a spring, a hot spring from the warmth in the air. A stream of water trickled down through stepped pools built up from pumice.

It poured out into a main bath which was almost the size of a small swimming pool, squared off and tiled with geometric trim. Around the edges were depressions, each with a drain at the centre, and several deep bowls stacked up. There were low walls and the remains of wood and fine cloth partitions that had divided it up, but the centuries of damp had rotted them away.

Canids didn't sweat the same way as primates, thank Lylat, but seeing the bath, Fox was reminded that his fur was getting more than a bit musky and matted. He could have done with a dip himself. But... "Okay, you get dressed, I'll cook us some ration packs and get this shoulder dealt with."

He stripped his flight suit down to the waist and tied it off. While it was difficult to see his shoulder, he could feel the flesh under his fur aching, there was serious bruising, at least. He knelt down by his backpack and hauled out the medi-kit and two 1500 calorie ration packs. He didn't have many, but on this planet he shouldn't need to horde them. As an after thought, he checked his canteen and got that out too.

Scooping up a bowl of water, and wincing at the twinge it caused in his shoulder, he pulled the activation tabs and dropped the metal foil packs in. They were based on the same technology as blood replacement packs, water was drawn in via a powered molecular filter in the base, and heated to boiling point by thermal wires that were integrated with it. The power came from one shot, thin film aeterna-cells in the insulated walls of the packs. The canteen had it's own filter, and worked a similar way. Then he headed over to the entrance, no other Sharpclaw was bothering Krystal while she dressed.

While the packs were cooking, he pulled out the medical analyser and ran it over his shoulder. The analysis was what he'd expected, serious bruising and so was the treatment, pump it full of Fast heal and an analgesic. He plugged in the appropriate vials and held the trauma pack to the bruise, hearing a slight hiss as it used a hypodermic pressure spray to deliver the drugs. The ache faded almost immediately, but it would take several minutes for the Fast Heal to get to work.

All the while he watched the corridor, and stretched out his empathic sense. So he could feel as well as hear Krystal come up behind him, and stop just short of putting her hand on his shoulder. "That looks painful!"

"If my battle jacket couldn't harden under impact, it would have been a lot worse than painful. Just goes to show you, down isn't out." He sighed. "I'd hoped to get more info on those other warp-ways. That was good work, you may have messed up, but you turned it round for us. Look, I'm sorry I got mad, I could feel you were scared, I should have been more supportive."

Krystal smiled. "Actually, I'm glad. It's good to know you think of me as an adult, rather than a kid who needs her hand holding. As to getting the information, I saw an opportunity and took it."

Fox felt her simple pleasure at his approval colour with something else. "That's not all I sensed. Was I really, 'magnificent'?"

"Now you're fishing again. In short, yes!" Fox made one last examination of the corridor, and satisfied no ravening hordes were coming, turned to look at her, now fully dressed and with her tail re-bound. "I could feel you controlling your fear, but outwardly you didn't turn a hair, or anything else for that matter."

He looked her up and down and saw her blush again slightly before looking into her eyes, answering an unspoken question in them, and not well hidden in her public thoughts, even thought he knew he really shouldn't. "Yes, you are beautiful too, but I didn't need to see you nude to know that."

She cast her eyes down, and he thought he'd embarrassed her before he realised she had much more practical matters in mind, getting a good look at his own bared chest fur. She even reached out and squeezed one of his biceps, built up with over-g training and toned through endless staff practice with Ema. "You aren't bad yourself."

"Whoa!" He gently disengaged her hand from his upper arm, and started to pull his flight suit back up.

She came close to pouting for a second. "Why? I know you like me, a lot! And you loved me, well the other me. I can be her..."

Fox didn't need empathy to tell she was puzzled and not a little unhappy. For a fraction of a second he thought about lying, but considering the rapport they had, she'd almost certainly know, and besides, he didn't want to, not with her. Very well then, the truth.

"Uh uh! She went through a lot of bad things, and one of the things I'm trying to do is make sure they don't happen to you! You don't need to change anyway, I'm trying very hard not to fall in love with you as it is! I certainly know you better than the future Krystal, despite the fact we've been together for a far shorter time."

Her emotions were jumbled, happy and confused at the same time. He'd felt the spike of joy at his statement about falling in love, and that made him feel worse.

She responded, "I know I'm starting to see you as a lot more than just a friend and training partner, in fact I'm sure I'm falling in love with you, and I don't have a problem with that. So why not?"

"It's... complicated." He sighed. "I was already quite a bit older than the future Krystal, and with you it's even worse. I'm twice your age, as old as your father, and a stranger in this world. I promised your father I'd protect you, and I'm doing it, not by trying to keep you out of harm's way but by being there alongside you to cover your back. I'll even protect you from me."

She looked into his eyes. "You're the one male I don't want or need to be protected from. Besides, you don't look that old."

He grinned a little ruefully. "Results of a good health plan, but it's not the years, it's the parsecs."

He looked away towards the exit. "Look, we can't talk about this now, we've got to hook up with the New Dawn and help get it up in the air before the green guys find it."

She caught the side-bands to his statement. "You think they have pirated sky-ships coming, or other captive Cloudrunners."

"Makes sense from what that Alpha said." He finished dressing and scooped the two ready ration packs from the bowl. The outsides were still cool, the pouch walls being near perfect thermal insulators, but the mol-stiction seal at the top was red, indicating the contents were at the right temperature. He took the towel off her, and handed her a pack. "We can eat on the run."

"Alright, but this conversation isn't finished, what I'm feeling for you isn't just some childish infatuation, or just physical attraction. And I think maybe there's more to this on your side than even you realise." She set her compacted staff across her back, and strode out, tail swaying, every inch the Protector.

Fox sighed, again, and headed out after her, squeezing the towel's corner twice to trigger it's electrostatic charge. It compressed down, squeezing out most of the water, and leaving only the hydrophobic tips of the fibers exposed. A quick flick of the wrist, and the remaining droplets were thrown off. If only emotions were that easy to deal with, or desires, he thought.

The rations were a Zonessian pasta dish in a creamy sauce, loaded with chunks of synthesized meat. By the time they reached the doorway to the walkway, they'd both finished their meals. It wasn't fancy, but it was solid and filling. Krystal ate without further comment, though he sensed her mild surprise at the hot meal, and enjoyment of the flavour.

When they reached the lower entrance, Fox motioned and thought at Krystal to stay back, while he looked outside. He trusted her empathy to tell them of approaching threats, but he needed to scan the layout of the exterior in daylight. Seeing no-one in the immediate vicinity, he drew back and tried the comm on his PDA again. This time he got a signal.

"Master Ti! This is Fox, are you okay?"

A small holo-image of the red panda appeared over his wrist, the stand-alone projector wasn't needed for this. "Ah, Fox... I'm glad to see you are alright, Krystal too? Yes, we made land-fall well down beyond the valley. Ema is finding some suitable wood to use as a spar, and the able bodied Cloudrunners are foraging. The Dumbledang pods helped, but the state those poor creatures were in... they need food, and plenty of it."

Fox grimaced. "If you can get a message to them, make sure they don't show themselves above the trees. We got into a bit of trouble, some of the goons escaped, but in the process Krystal managed to get that there are more of them, other bases, and other warp-ways... I don't have time to explain, just know that they may have other fliers or a sky-ship in the area, and keep yourselves hidden as best as you can."

The panda looked solemn. "This is... unfortunate news. We had to make landfall in a clearing, we are well screened from the sides, but overhead... Hmm... We will need the rest of the day to complete repairs, and the injured could do with that much rest. We shall do what we can. I will ask two Cloudrunners to come fetch you."

Fox thought for a moment. "Not yet, I want to try something else, hopefully I can give any Sharpclaw enough of a distraction to take them off in the wrong direction first. Then we'll turn round and come to you."

"But how will you find us? On foot, with those Sharpclaw patrols it will not be easy..."

"I'll need your help with that. The PDA doesn't have the range or power of a dedicated homing beacon, but if you open the... and, hang on I'll program it..." Fox opened the holo-interface wider and started plucking icons from a command tree that opened up under his fingers.

He dropped them into program box, tying them together with finger stokes, and filling in the few parameters needed with key-pads that appeared as he touched the icons. With the program ready and testing out correctly, he dragged the program box into Master Ti's holo-image, which sent it across the link.

"The PDA you have will act as a beacon my PDA can locate, like a signal fire only I can see."

The red panda worked for a moment, then said, "I see. Ema and I shall make everything ready as quickly as possible. May the Ancients guide your steps."

"Thanks, I'll take any help I can get!" Fox grinned, then said more seriously, "You too, okay?"

As the holo-image vanished, he turned back to see Krystal there with her arms folded, stern expression somewhat spoiled by the poorly hidden amusement dancing in her eyes and the mind behind them. "By 'I', I assume you mean we, and by distraction, you mean some insanely dangerous stunt that no-one in their right mind would attempt."

"Insane's such a _strong_ word." He knew her words were for show, that she'd back his play to the hilt, and it made him feel very good. "I can't believe they took all the jet-bikes. If nothing else, any sensible commander would have left a couple here to act as couriers, co-ordinate their forces."

"We're going back in there?" Krystal pointed to the half collapsed main temple.

"I hope not, but if we have to, then we have to." He started along the walkway, from what he could see the passage below was almost certainly blocked off. Looking out over the valley in day-light, they couldn't see any Sharpclaw, but with the tree cover, that wasn't surprising.

"One problem, I've never seen one of these jet-bikes, let alone ridden one." Krystal mentioned.

"It's easy." He proceeded to remember his jet-bike rides on Sauria, inviting her to follow his thoughts. Unfortunately, he couldn't help but show all of it, trying to ignore parts just made them stand out.

"I see... and is riding off a cliff at the end absolutely necessary?" She teased, giggling.

"Hey, it was only the once... okay, twice. But just think, now you know what not to do as well!"

When they reached the tumbled stone that formed the end of the walkway, Fox looked up at the sky, and muttered. "Best to have it ready." He un-shipped his backpack, and pulled out the beacon, activating it's ready mode. Putting it back, he checked his PDA and opened the command icon that had appeared.

Krystal stood over him, watching his thoughts, but not fully following them, as he set up another program, which he dragged into the beacon icon. "What are you doing?"

"The next time my Arwing orbits over... about 65 minutes from now, the beacon will be sending a signal, a set of instructions to the auto-pilot." He no longer needed to use circumlocutions with her, she'd been a fascinated student of the ways of space during their long conversations. While they'd had no time, he hoped in future to try her out on the virtual trainer on his PDA. She should pick up piloting as easily as she would later... before... time travel was Venom on tenses.

"It'll slow, descend, and hold a stationary position, about 10 skm up, and when I call for it, home in and land on the nearest flat space to the beacon. If their sky-ship appears and has heavy weapons, we'll need it."

With the beacon set up, they started clambering their way up the rock pile, moving around to the front.

"Whew! Let's hope when we get there, we've got something to show for it!" puffed Fox as he negotiated one particularly tricky section of overhang.

"I'm sure we...yeep!" Krystal was making lighter work of it, but her foot slipped. She started to fall, only to be caught, and hauled back up by Fox's outstretched hand. She clung convulsively to the rock, and gasped out. "Thanks... I know we want to get the drop on them, but that wasn't what I had in mind."

Fox grinned, even as he checked her footing was secure. This Krystal had a livelier sense of humour than her future self. "Now that was a low pun."

That got a groan in return, luckily the joke worked as well in Ancient as in Lylatian. They navigated past the crumbled section, and onto a higher step at the temple front. Fox dropped on his belly and crawled forward, and Krystal followed. "And here we have a lovely little family scene." muttered Fox, zoom goggles held to his eyes.

There were half a dozen Sharpclaw around a fire in a clearing below, with some unidentifiable carcass roasting over it. A stream trickled past them, presumably from a culvert in the base of the pyramid, and down into the lush forest beyond. There were also some small cases set up as a makeshift table, and on it...

'A comm-unit!' Fox thought, 'Venomian, like the rest of their tech, but why didn't my e-warfare suite pick it... Dang it, not from low orbit, even if I'd focused on hunting that sort of transmission, those things were made hard to intercept, and with planetary fields interfering... Okay, we have to take out those guards and steal two of those bikes. Getting the comm set would be nice bonus.'

'Understood.' was Krystal's terse thought back. Now they were ready to attack, she was all business.

They drew beads on the nearest pair to the bikes, and fired. Fox's hit the Sharpclaw's body, but with a blaster bolt it didn't really matter. Krystal's Fire Blast burned an arm off.

The Sharpclaws responded with commendable speed, three of them diving for cover below the lip of the lowest stone tier, while one dashed for a bike, yelling for help in Ancient. That one fell to another blaster bolt, but it gave the three time to reach safety, and the pair's outstretched empathy detected them climbing up the side.

"Fox, to the side!" called out Krystal, and Fox rolled to face away from her, following her thought, to face another trio of Sharpclaw that had emerged from an archway further down the tier they were on. He fired from prone, taking one of them in the head, then a second one, but the last dashed forward, and he dropped the blaster to engage them with his staff.

With no time to get up, he raised it over his head in both hands, blocking a downward swung axe on it's shaft. Rather than try and throw it off, he swung a leg over in a vicious kick as it raised it's own clawed foot to stomp him, and hit it's one remaining stable leg. While the leg didn't break, it put the Sharpclaw off balance, and Fox heaved himself up, driving the axe away and out towards the edge of the tier. The Sharpclaw went over with a gargled yowl.

Fox turned back to Krystal, and was just in time to see one remaining Sharpclaw reach the lip of the tier. As his arm came over the edge, she sprayed it with an ice spray, and smashed it away. The Sharpclaw fell away, landing heavily, and Krystal sprang over the edge after it, smashing down, using it's body as a soft landing spot.

Fox jumped down himself, tucking and rolling to absorb the impact as he landed, to find Krystal standing on the empty ledge, the corpses having obligingly cleared themselves away as usual. She tilted her head to one side, giving him a quizzical look. "I believe you would call that, 'Giving them the cold shoulder?'"

The last words had been in Lylatian, and Fox groaned. Clearly she'd learned more from their talks than he'd imagined. She was shaping up nicely as a combatant... and in other ways, a treacherous part of his mind added. In the moment, she'd been focused and aware, in the aftermath,unshaken enough to joke about it. Well, one good quip deserved another. He replied in Ancient with another pun that worked in both languages..

"I was about to say you disarmed them, but that's good too."

They got down, and hauled the transmitter onto one of the bikes, where Fox bound it in place with space tape. They mounted up, and blasted away down the stream bank, just as some more Sharpclaw scrambled out of the temple via the culvert. Fox triggered a 'rear view mirror' holo-cam on his PDA and fired back over his shoulder several times, hitting the remaining jet-bike by luck more than judgment, and causing it to explode enthusiastically.

"No pursuit, but anyone up ahead will be looking our way!"

"This is a good thing?" called out Krystal.

Fox switched his PDA screen to show the direction to Master Ti's PDA, and started choosing paths away from the direction indicated. "We're acting as a decoy, the more attention we attract the better!"

They burst out into an open vale, where a second camp of Sharpclaw, including an Alpha, a dozen jet-bikes, and a massive creature which stood 10 standard meters tall, and had crimson eyes in a head that was mostly mouth, which in turn was mostly made up of teeth.

"Uh... are you sure?" asked Krystal.

**Author's note:** Don't you just hate it when your characters take one look at your carefully worked out story outline, then proceed to utterly ignore it? It looks like there will be at least another chapter before we get to the one I meant to write. **Edit:** Make that two, possibly three.

BTW, I think I said in the reviews section that I suck at romance. Can anyone tell me how badly two people actually talking honestly and openly about their feelings has wrecked things? Like I said, it's hard to build up romantic tension between empaths.

Also, do you think tweaking Krystal's personality like this is putting her out of character? I'm extrapolating from the simple fact that she has less emotional baggage, so she should be less messed up than the canon Krystal. So she laughs more easily, hides her true feelings less and is more playful. I think it's reasonable, but I could do with a second opinion.

I also hope no-one's offended by the nudity. It made sense. I'd already decided the towers were residential areas, and that the existence of the blind valley was due to spring activity. If we're going with Japansese culture, public baths and hot springs are usually used naked, though with separation between the genders. I know because I've been to Japan, and to a Japanese hot spring resort.

Considering Krystal is from a traveling caravan, a proper hot springs or bath house must be a rare luxury to her, so you can understand why she'd be so eager to use it, and let her guard down. Besides, it's about time we had a hot springs episode. Well, on with the motley.


	13. A very bad pun

**Mission 13 – The Turn of the Red Eye.**

**Authors note:** I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. The title, just looked at me with big puppy dog eyes, and I had to write a chapter for it.

Fox just skidded his jet-bike to a halt, and took half a dozen shots at the camp. "Don't worry, that big bruiser is going down!" He lined up a charged shot, the blaster whining as it charged up, only to whine down. He checked the charge reading, less than 10 shots left, not enough for a charged shot, oh crud!

"Er... change of plan. Run away!" Krystal was already boosting off in the direction they'd been going. Fox followed, feeding her directions. He could hear the Sharpclaw bikes coming after them, and checked the time display. 'Okay, we need to keep them occupied for another 42 minutes, then my Arwing will be overhead, and we can get away.'

They zoomed across the vale, and Fox switched to proximity scanner the same one he'd used throughout the Aparoid war. Not so good for humanoids, but power sources like those bikes would show up nicely. He caught up with Krystal and took the lead, bringing out the staff to hold as he sought the best route to take.

"Whoa! Get low!" Fox called out. They dived into the forest on the other side, under a massive fallen bole with barely enough room to accommodate their bikes. Both Fox and Krystal had enough warning to duck, but from the yowl and explosion behind them, it seemed that at least one of their pursuers hadn't. Fox deliberately slowed down a bit to keep the remaining enemies on his scanner.

He thought rather than yelled, confident Krystal was close enough to pick it up. 'The idea is to keep them engaged. The only things that can follow us are the other jet-bikes, and from my count, only five of the dozen we saw are after us. I'll bet the others are right now dashing to find their other scouting parties and send them after us!'

They rode down the side of the rivulet, and in a few moments had exited the side valley and headed out in a broader, lower valley with a wider river flowing along the centre. They burst out into another clear area, where the river had wound round in a massive S curve, widening into a ford.

The rivulet they'd traveled down tumbled over a bank into the main watercourse, and they shot out over the low waterfall, landing on the river and swinging around shoot across the ford, throwing off massive trails of spray. The Sharpclaw bikers followed them, trying to cut across on a tighter path to catch up with them.

One failed to keep his nose-cone up, and ploughed his jet-bike head first into the river bed, flipping over and over and spilling him off just before it exploded against a rock on the far bank. But three others managed to come up alongside them, one even zoomed ahead.

Fox veered away from a wild swipe of the axe of the Sharpclaw to his left, then back as he dodged a mine dropped by the one in front, dropping his speed slightly so he smashed sideways into the engine section of the first jet bike, crippling the nacelle of the starboard engine. He extended the staff he still held, and swung it sideways, flinging the Sharpclaw on it sideways. It veered away, and smashed into a fallen tree.

Fox was already baiting the Sharpclaw in front of him, while coordinating with Krystal telepathically. She was playing keep-away with the Sharpclaw that had homed in on her, and Fox nudged up behind the mine-layer, veering to one side as it dropped one. Krystal swerved the other way, avoiding the mine while leading her Sharpclaw over it. The water apparently magnified the effect, and the Sharpclaw fell away, engine trailing smoke.

That left the one in front of Fox which dropped back and tried to close in and jump across. Fox just smashed him down with his staff, and zoomed under the tree trunk that had fallen across the river where it narrowed back into a cataract between high banks. Krystal followed, and shot upwards with her staff as they passed underneath, causing the log to break and fall behind her.

The last Sharpclaw jet-bike somehow ran up the gap in the middle and went flying over their heads, tumbling onto the bank above, smoke rising from it's landing place. Fox had sensed her actions and risked a glance behind him as the route ahead was clear. "If that doesn't attract every Sharpclaw within 10 skm, I don't know what will! Good one!"

They swept down the river, spraying fan-tails of water to either side. The jet bikes were surface effect vehicles, and seemed to work equally well as jet-skis. Fox finally saw another ford up ahead, and rode up the bank, sliding to a stop. Krystal slowed down alongside, flushed and breathing hard.

"Wow... that was amazing! But how did you know which path to choose?"

Fox smiled. "The staff helped me, as always."

Krystal frowned. "Fox, we didn't have time last night, but I don't understand, Ema didn't either. A Protector staff doesn't show you visions, and even if the one you got on Sauria did, I'm carrying it! Yours is just a training staff."

Fox looked down at the staff in his hand. "But..." Suddenly a light dawned. "Ahh! Idiot! Master Ti has been trying to get me to focus this future seeing ability I'm supposed to have, and finding it heavy going. But that's because I already have a way, it was me all along!"

He sighed. "I guess I wouldn't have believed I could do it even if someone told me, but whatever psychic link that staff triggered when I first picked it up must have kicked something loose. And with all the other weird stuff that was going on, I just added the visions as one more freaky thing the staff could do, and didn't resist it."

"Can you still do it?" Krystal asked, suddenly worried.

Fox focused his thoughts, and a vision came clear to him. "There's a clearing up ahead, big enough to land my Arwing. It looks like yes, for figuring out where to go at least."

The comm software on his PDA bleeped, and he accepted the signal.

"Is this how... Ah Fox! We fought off a group of Sharpclaw with the aid of the Cloudrunners, but one got away. I'm afraid we need you here as soon as possible!"

"Okay, Master Ti, we'll be there as soon as possible, which should be... 34 minutes, hang on I'll set you a timer..." He did as before, packaging his Arwing orbital clock function to send, and adding an ample 6 minutes to the time for the atmospheric flight. From the calculated signal strength, the other PDA was only 40 skm away.

"Okay, we should be there when the big hand reaches upright..."

"I understand Lylatian numerals, you thought in them often enough when I was training you. It will be good to see you both safe."

"Should have guessed." Fox said, "We'll be there! Hope the Ancients are working overtime on this one!"

He dropped the comm, and changed his blaster power-pack. He'd save the remaining five shots for training Krystal, they'd be equivalent to about 500 laser-painter shots. "Let's hope I don't get into too many more battles. When these are gone, they're gone!"

The blue fox caught his thoughts. "But you're going to teach me? Besides, surely your sky-ship has power to spare?"

Fox shrugged, and held up the magazine. "Slippy might be able to jury-rig a magazine charger from the main accumulators on my Arwing, but if I tried it, I'd most likely just blow the power-pack, and myself, back into orbit. These things have a lot of energy in them."

Krystal moved round to sit sideways on her bike seat. She could sense he was a eager as her to move on, but they had to wait for his sky-ship. "You have so many wonderful things. Like those meals that heated without a cooking fire, and that expanding towel. Did you commission the craftsman who made it to add your symbol?"

Fox chuckled. "No the Star Fox logo was merchandising." They had a few moments to wait before the Arwing came, and this was a safer topic than some others. It took a few minutes to explain the concept of merchandising, but Krystal quickly caught on, being the daughter of a trading family helped.

"So these companies paid you money to put your symbol on goods, because you were famous?"

"Yup. Mugs, clothing, plush toys... it was guilt free money, and I had a starship mortgage and a payroll to meet. After the Aparoid war, one toy line even included a plush toy of you, one of the best sellers. I made sure you approved it, of course." He didn't add some of the things they'd stopped, some not fit for polite society.

Krystal shook her head. "I still want to understand the future me you knew. Some of the things she did made no sense."

Fox shrugged, looking distant. "I don't know if I can help, I loved her, but it's not like I ever really understood her either."

The blue vixen frowned. "That's one of the things that makes no sense. She should have been able to spot your potential, the fact that you could use her staff would have been a give-away, and even though I'm not as skilled as Master Ti, she should have been able to start training you. Then there would have been fewer misunderstandings."

"Maybe that's why she didn't." Fox had turned to face Krystal. "She never wanted to talk about her past. Not only would training me have forced her to remember it, I'd probably have picked up at least a few things. Of course, I wasn't the most open guy in the galaxy either."

"You do alright." She gazed into his eyes, and he felt the warm regard in them.

He couldn't help returning that regard, but he cut it short by ducking his head. "Like riding a jet-bike, I finally figured out what to do from my mistakes. And I made a lot of 'em. For now, we get to that open area for my Arwing to land. So saddle up!"

They drove away from the river, looking for a clearing or even another meadow. And they soon found one, a shallowly sloped grassy vale leading down to the main river. They came to a stop, and Krystal looked around. "How much time before your sky-ship lands?"

"Only another twelve minutes. It should already be starting it's descent. And I couldn't have designed a better place." Fox looked away from the holo-display, gunned his twin jets and drove out into the middle of the open area to set his beacon.

Krystal nodded. "Well at least something has gone without a hitch."

Fox winced. "You never, ever say that on a mission. It's like waving a sign at the fates saying 'bring it!'."

"What could possibly..."

There was a crashing noise, and a chilling roar. Suddenly trees were smashed down not far away from them, and the giant Red Eye, with a howdah arrangement on it's shoulders, and a Sharpclaw Alpha riding it, crashed into the clearing.

"That, for a start!" Fox started to bring his jet-bike around, only to dive off it as the Red Eye opened it's mouth and spat a crackling ball of lightning at him, blasting the bike and the salvaged comm unit to pieces. He tucked and rolled, coming up with his blaster in a two handed marksman's grip.

"This time I've got a full magazine!" He charged up and fired a charged shot which took it full in the chest... and dissipated, energy crackling over the pebble-like scales of it's armour. "Oh, you have got to be kidding!"

It looked like Andross had helped out General Scales with more than Venomian army surplus hardware. This enhanced Red Eye was exactly the sort of bio-technological weapons system he delighted in developing. It wasn't even unique, the winged mutant Drakor had been able to fire energy bolts, and several bio-weapons during the Lylat wars had been blaster resistant.

Of course, at the time, Slippy had guessed that Drakor had been created by General Scales using the planetary energy field, but in retrospect, that made no sense. Where would a sword swinging barbarian have found the information to pull off something like that? In fact, it seemed crazy that no-one had made the Andross connection until he revealed himself, even if they'd thought he was dead.

Fox wasn't musing on these matters, he was in full tactical mode, and his first action was to dash forward, heading straight for the monster. It might have seemed insane at first glance, but it was actually good sense. Playing 'dodge the energy ball' until the Arwing got there was a losing strategy, and if a charged shot had little effect, he had no other way to hurt it at range. Up close he might find a weak spot.

He jinked and weaved from side to side, dodging two more lightning bolts before he got into melee range. It was driven forward, and it's head dipped, jaws crashing together, and he barely ducked under them. It's hot stinking breath gusting over his fur, carrion mixed with ozone like a vorpal photo-copier. He was close enough to sense it's will, a harsh laser pinpoint of killer intent. As it reared back to try again, he dived between it's legs, then had to make a leaping forward roll over the tip of it's tail as it swung round, trying to find him.

One of the other modifications Andross had made was a double row of spiny plates running up either side of it's spine, from hand sized ones at it's tail tip, to plates big enough to shield the Sharpclaw Alpha at the neck. In fact, that was what formed the howdah.

Even as he tucked and rolled out of his leap, he had an idea how he could use it to his advantage. He made his idea as clear as possible in his mind, hoping Krystal would be able to pick it up, even from across the clearing. He could barely sense her, which was good because it meant she was back at the tree line, out of harms way. He shadowed the monster, fortunately Andross hadn't enhanced it's agility, and it was exactly as agile as you'd expect something 10 meters tall to be.

As soon as he saw an opening, he leapt again, but this time _on_ to the tail, as high as he could manage. He was thrown about, but managed to get a grip on one of the plates, and set his feet, at which point the mol-stiction pads in his boots could get a grip. He worked his way up to the root of the tail, and flung himself over the plate, to land on the thing's spine. The Alpha finally spotted him, and turned, holding onto it's perch with one had and readying a throwing spear with the other.

Fox trusted to the grip of his boots, and raised his blaster, firing off a shot which grazed past the Alpha's head due to being thrown about by the Red Eye's movement. However, the same effect threw off the Sharpclaw's aim, and he didn't even need to duck. He started working his way up towards it, and it drew it's massive mace and quit it's position, hoping to get close and smash him before he got a shot on target.

This was what Fox had been waiting for. 'NOW!', he thought and yelled with all the force he could muster, and was rewarded with the sound of a jet-bike firing up. He focussed, feeling the motion of the Red Eye as it rampaged forward, no longer guided by the Sharpclaw bearing down on him.

He stood his ground, raising his blaster, gauging the exact moment where the motions of the monster would bring it's muzzle into line with the muzzle of the Alpha... Now! A bolt of plasma shot forth from the tip of his weapon, and demonstrated that although the Red Eye might be blaster-proof, it's rider wasn't.

Fox holstered his blaster and turned, running down the spine. If Krystal was doing her part, he didn't want to be up on top of the creature. He needn't have worried, Krystal drove her jet-bike in, easily evading the poorly aimed lightning balls it spat, and skidded to a halt only a half dozen meters away. Jumping off her bike before it had even stopped, she landed with her staff raised high, and slammed it down as she triggered the most powerful seismic strike the device was capable of.

Just as on Sauria, the staff proved the old adage, 'the bigger they are, the harder they fall'. The Red Eye tumbled forward, measuring it's length on the ground, and roared in pain. Fox leaped off as it went down and jumped clear. The impact stunned it, and it spent a few seconds weakly scrabbling at the grassy sod, tearing great holes in it with it's talons. Krystal had also jumped clear of the crash site, and she came around one side of it's head while Fox dashed up to the other.

Fox unslung his training staff and jumped up, striking at it's crimson eyes, hoping to get a thrust to the brain. But it's eyes were lidded, and the eyelids were tough enough that they defeated his thrust. Unlike the King Red Eye, there seemed no weak spot in the top of it's head. It opened its jaws, and he could smell the ozone as it started to charge a lightning shot, and had another idea.

But Krystal was in a better position to try it. She moved over to the jet-bike, hauled it around by main strength to face the monster's maw, and gunned the accelerator to maximum, flinging herself back and to the side to avoid the flare of the twin jets as it shot forward into the creature's open mouth.

Fox flung himself to the ground too, and just in time, as the lighting shot formed, crackling over the shell of the bike, and causing massive localised heating, which ruptured the fuel tanks and triggered an explosion as the highly volatile fuel vapourised. The Red Eye's neck snapped backwards, and it's head exploded.

Both foxes were slightly singed by the proximity of the explosion, even though the force had been directed mainly away from them. They were also thoroughly deafened, though their hearing started to recover almost immediately. And of course the secondary spray of half cooked Red Eye meat did nothing to add to their sartorial splendour, unless you were fond of red. It quickly vanished the same way Sharpclaw did.

Fox pushed himself upright, brushing off the debris, and ignoring the twinge in his shoulder where the Fast-heal was still working. He shook his head to clear the ringing in his ears, moving towards where Krystal lay, though he could sense she was unharmed.

"Whoa, this is why I never like catching the red-eye..."

He offered her a hand up as she stirred, but she levered herself off the floor and sprang to her feet. His hearing might not be quite back to normal, but backed by the thought there was no misunderstanding. "I'm alright Fox."

"Better than alright, that was great!" Taking her at her word, he reached into his back-pack and set up the beacon out in the open.

"It was your plan, I just carried it out." Krystal said, modestly.

"Heh, I'd hardly call it a plan, but I'm just glad it worked, and that was down to you. We make a good team." With the beacon planted firmly, he backed off towards the woods. "Now let's get to cover. You stand watch while I monitor terminal guidance..."

The ship interface icon was on his PDA holo-screen when he opened it, the ship station-keeping at 10 skm. Krystal ended up watching interestedly over his shoulder as he worked with the interface, though he could sense her empathy was still reaching to cover the area against another assault.

Opening up a down-looking holo-cam viewpoint, he checked the flight data and told it to home in on the beacon, zooming in and isolating an off-set open area for the landing spot. He didn't trigger active sensors until the last moment, to confirm the altitude and landing area was solid, but the passive view of the holo-cam and the beacon signal overlay was more than adequate. There was a descending whine out in the clearing, and Krystal looked up to see the sky-ship live for the first time.

After it touched down, she dashed over to it, circling around. "It's... beautiful!"

Fox strode over more slowly, but with a proprietary pride. "Yes, she is. The Space Dynamics Arwing II Aerospace Superiority Fighter. I flew mod B's back in the Lylat war, and you, future you, checked out on the mod F. But this is the best of the lot. Better shields, upgraded to twin lasers, the best avionics, and plenty of power and manoeuvrability."

He let down the steps and opened the canopy with his PDA, and Krystal clambered up to look in. He in turn turned to watch the tree line.

"Uh... there's only one seat." He heard Krystal say, puzzled.

"If we had time you could ride the wing, I've done it before, but I'm gonna have to boost pretty hard." Fox hesitated, a bit embarrassed. "Uh... I need clear access to the flight controls, so I'm going to have to push the seat back as far as it'll go and well... sit on your lap."

"That's alright by me." Krystal said, stepping down off the foot rest, completely unconcerned.

"Don't get the wrong idea, this is because I have to. It's hard enough already...Ahh... I mean..."

"It's just as well I'm not sitting in _your_ lap then." Krystal giggled as Fox's face emulated a distant galaxy, at least the red shift due to his increased blush was similar. She calmed down and replied. "I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. It's alright Fox, I won't do anything to make it any harder... sorry."

Fox had recovered the beacon, and was already climbing up on the step, re-rigging the seat and straps. Oddly enough her teasing actually helped, he could sense there was no meanness in it, just humour He chuckled. "I know, it's kind of ridiculous the way I'm acting..."

"I think it's sweet. Don't worry, I said we'd talk about it later, so I'm not going to push anything now. We protect the New Dawn, get the Cloudrunners to safety, and then we'll talk."

Fox's relief was evident as he stepped down, giving the place one last scan. "Thanks Krystal. Okay, it's set up."

Krystal snuggled down into the seat, and Fox climbed in, lowering himself gently onto her lap. She rested back, arms around his waist, supporting him both physically and mentally. "Don't worry, I'm not made of glass."

"Oh, I know that..." The lengthened straps just fitted over them. He pushed out gently with his empathy to check she wasn't feeling trapped, sandwiched between him and the seat, but if anything the opposite was true. Krystal was enjoying her sandwich.

Fox lost himself in the start-up routines, if not ignoring the warm and distracting presence behind him, the scent of her fur, at least able to relegate it to a level where he could pilot effectively. He could feel her alert interest, and while he didn't slow down, he made sure he thought about what he was doing so she could follow it.

Power up, G Diffusers adjusted for atmospheric flight, Master Ti's PDA locked in as way-point... He heard Krystal give a little yelp of surprise as the G-Diffusion kicked in and their effective weight dropped to a fraction of normal.

As they lifted, he said, "Sorry, should have warned you. The G-Diffusers make the whole ship lighter, it's what gives us such manoeuvrability and speed, but space fighters don't have room or power to spare for an artificial gravity system to give the cockpit normal weight. You get used to it."

He hadn't thrown up active sensors, more out of habit since he mentally labelled the area hostile territory. But a check of passives as they rose above treetop level flagged up something odd. As soon as he'd turned towards the distant beacon and started boosting, he threw in his e-warfare suite and analysed the signals.

"That's odd... I'm getting some power sources, pretty big ones, not more than fifteen skm away... No active sensor traces though... Let's see..." He triggered his own active sensors, and zoomed in with the utmost power of a holo-cam viewpoint. "It's moving... Dang!"

At maximum magnification, they could just see a galleon-like sky-ship, three or four times the size of the New Dawn, a sloop rig with dragon-like wing sails and a stern propeller, as well as... rocket engines? General Scales' tri-bladed symbol was boldly displayed on the mainsail. The prow was built up in a dragon head that seemed to be moving independently, and the stern castle carried two martial looking towers each with a smaller, fixed dragon head, though they looked more stylised, like a carving.

"I've got a match, that head is some sort of Andross bio-tech weapon, one of the power sources, and the rear turrets are powered too. Venomian jet thrusters... Lylat! That thing is a mash-up! And it's on a converging course with us and the location of the New Dawn." His face took on a grim expression. "Well it's not going to get there..."

Even as he started to change course he felt Krystal reach out with her empathy, then cry out. "No!"

"Huh? What..." Then he felt it relayed through her, there were Cerinians on that ship as well as Sharpclaw, slave sailors that were running it, under the lash. The emotions were strong, raw, but even so, sensing them at this distance, Krystal was something else.

"Fox, we've got to get help, Master Ti and Ema." Krystal stated. "We have to get on board that ship and free those prisoners..."

There was no room for disagreement, or need for it. "Okay, one death defying rescue coming up!" He boosted ahead towards the landing site of the Protector sky-ship.


	14. A Blessing in the Skies

**Mission 14 – A blessing in the skies.**

The sound of the Arwing's approach and it's descent in into the clearing where the New Dawn floated caused a number of the Cloudrunners clustered around the Protector sky-ship to take wing. But they quickly settled back down as the nearest ones recognised the figures in the cockpit. Krystal threw out a friendly telepathic hail to the green tiger and red panda looking up from their work.

The tip of the sky-ship's keel rested on the ground, but that still put the deck over seven metres above. Ropes anchored it to the surrounding trees and provided routes to the surface. Ema was in the shade of the hull, working on planing down a thick tree branch, while Master Ti was rigging a hoist out over the side where the starboard wing-sail once reached, assisted by a couple of Cloudrunners.

Fox popped the hatch and leapt out as soon as the harness disengaged, eschewing the foot rests that extended. He ran across to the Protector sky-ship and hauled himself, hand over hand up one of the anchoring ropes, followed closely be Krystal.

Together they relayed their discovery to Master Ti in flashing thoughts, with Ema quickly coming up on deck as she felt the urgent tone of their emotions.

At the end of the story, Master Ti nodded decisively. "I understand... Fox, can you disable these weapons this new sky-ship has, without destroying the ship itself?"

"Yeah, at least my Arwing is the only thing that has a chance."

"Very well then, you shall go ahead and remove these weapons. I shall ask our Cloudrunner friends if they can provide we three with assistance to follow you."

Vexor landed on the deck, and not a few other Cloudrunners were circling. "Master Ti, you need our help?"

Master Ti relayed the news, and Vexor ducked his beaked head in a nod. "Of course, I shall call three of our strongest fliers... and every other able-bodied member of the flock will assist. Windam! Bresse! To me!"

The Cloudrunners, one of whom Fox and Krystal recognised from their earlier flight. Master Ti didn't need to ask who the third one was. Vexor made it clear. "If you will permit me, Master Protector, I shall carry you myself."

Windam attached himself to Krystal, and the last and largest one, Breese, looked Ema up and down and would have sweat-dropped, but stretched his wings wide in a gesture of assent. Things were quickly arranged. The senior female, Zephair looked far better after some Dumbledang fruit and a full night of rest. She would take charge of the non-combatants, getting them to cover in the trees.

Fox would go ahead in his Arwing and clear a landing zone, while the other three spearheaded the dozen other able-bodied Cloudrunners. They would provide close-in air support while the three protectors stormed the ship, and Fox would join them if possible.

Fox stopped at the edge of the sky-ship. "Okay, keep under cover until I signal Master Ti on the comm. You do not want any of what that thing's likely to be throwing. Then come in as fast as you can. Okay?"

He jumped over the side and slid down the rope to the ground, his gloves protecting him. As he ran for his Arwing, Zephair gathered her flock, and the three spearhead Cloudrunners were being fitted with harnesses, discarded after the initial attack by the Sharpclaws. Pausing only long enough to set-up the homing beacon at his landing site, he scrambled up the steps and dropped into the cockpit.

As the cockpit canopy closed over him, Fox took a deep breath. The cockpit smelled of synthetics and re-cycled air, odd after the last two weeks of more natural scents. He'd really been too distracted on the flight here to notice it before. Overlaid on it was the lingering physical scent of Krystal's fur, one of the distractions. It was a powerful reminder of what he had to fight with, and what he had to fight for.

He went through the pre-flight check quickly, all the more so because he'd left it on standby, ready to scramble at a moments notice. Transferring comm relay to the ship system, he lifted off, using the god's eye view of his battle recorder to check he wouldn't accidentally incinerate any wayward Cloudrunners.

He adjusted his G-Diffusers for optimum compensation, powered up the shields and extended the wings fully for all range mode. Putting his sensors and e-warfare package to fully active, he armed his twin lasers, and started hunting for the target. It was only 6 skm away and approaching straight down wind, it's sail full.

One of Slippy's last gifts before he'd left for Aquas had been a fully automated version of his tactical analysis software, integrated into the sensors and canopy HUD. Now, when the brackets of the auto-targeting system locked onto the biggest power source, the head, a green bar popped up, showing it's toughness, while the lack of a second blue bar indicated it didn't have a shield.

The big problem wouldn't be hitting the thing, it would be that any kind of miss on the weapon would probably disembowel the wooden hull behind it, and a charged shot would probably incinerate half of it. That meant he'd need some fairly fancy basic flight manoeuvres. A holo-screen had automatically popped up, showing a close-up of the vessel, and at the closer and decreasing range he could see everything, down to the individual figures moving around behind the active dragon figure-head.

He was approaching at a sub-sonic cruise velocity, barely a stroll to the Arwing, but more than enough. The range dropped to 2 skm, and at his current closing velocity they should be seeing him right about.. now! The tempo of their movements took on a more active tone, and the dragon head swung to point right at him. Fox grinned fiercely. "Okay, you tail-sniffing sons of mothers, let's see what you've got..."

His e-warfare suite had already analysed the energy leakage, and unless that thing had some serious stealth shielding, his shields should be able to take multiple hits... not that he intended to let them. A fireball half the size of his Arwing lashed out from the dragon's head, but he didn't bother to manoeuvre, he could see it was going to fall short.

From what his sensors were telling him, it was quite powerful enough to disintegrate a Cloudrunner, or blast a sky-ship the size of the New Dawn to kindling. But his hull could probably take one, and his shields several. This wasn't going to be a slugging match, but a trial of skill. He was already in range to return fire, but he needed to get close to aim accurately, and in a direction that wouldn't take out the ship with it.

The range was decreasing more rapidly, they must have kicked in their thrusters, but he held his course. At 500 standard metres he weaved to evade the first fireball that came close to hitting him, then veered back across his base course and did a wing-over, dropping away below them.

He rolled and came back up from below crossing their bow on a diagonal, zooming up and finally getting a line on the dragons head that wouldn't torch the sail or the hull. The thing tried to fire on him, but he simply barrel rolled around it's best efforts. His own aim was rather better and he blasted repeated bolts of laser fire into the head, not even needing to lock on.

The head shook itself as it's damage bar went red, and finally slumped forward, smoke trailing form it's mouth. He swept up over it's starboard bow, and brought his ship round in a vertical turn past it's port side that brought his course down and over the stern. He just had chance for a single shot at the starboard of the rear two towers, and took it. It want home, and the thing started flaring out, but died off.

He swept away, kicking in his boost to open the range, then did an Immelmann turn, coming back on a reciprocal from astern starboard and targeting the undamaged port turret, once again to avoid sweeping the deck. A fireball from the other turret scraped his shields, but didn't cause them any serious distress. The turret he'd targeted would never have a chance to try, as multiple twin laser bolts went home, blowing it clean off the stern.

Once again he pulled a fast vertical turn out from it's port side, swinging round and lining up the last turret. It was throwing out fireballs as fast as possible, but he jinked and evaded them all, spiralling in to lay down a precisely targeted barrage into the top of the turret which made it flame out. He circled the sky-ship at a range of about 100 sm, but his sensors weren't showing any other weapon emplacements.

The poop deck had a large, flat area between the wrecked fireball launchers, and what might be a rail between that and the main controls. Further details were impossible to see, as more than a dozen Sharpclaw and an Alpha were moving about. There were also a few other figures which must be the original crew. Even at this range he could distinguish an emotional overlay, aggressive from the Sharpclaw, a mix of hope and fear from the others.

His instruments were showing what had to be a power source for controlling the twin rocket engines, and a secondary weaker thermal source, but nothing that suggested any ranged weapons. Except that is, for the spears that were being slung at him, and falling well short. He considered taking out the rocket motors, but they looked integrated into the hull, and wrecking them might cause the wreck he'd been firing to avoid.

He punched up the comm as he came round to sweep closely behind it's stern. He set the comm to relay his close-up holo-image. "Okay Master Ti, bring in the cavalry! I'd advise coming in low and then up over the stern, the bow is pretty messed up, and there's an open deck you can use at the back."

He saw the Alpha start to move purposefully in the close-up, and somehow picked up his intent, the thing was smart enough to figure why Fox had only hit the weapons, and intended to threaten the enslaved sailors to get him to surrender. "Oh no you don't!"

It wasn't a plan, nor anything that organised Fox pulled a braking manoeuvre and hauled round to face the deck, vectoring sideways purely on G-diffusers and under-jets. Star fighter weapons weren't designed to hit individual people, especially when the person aiming was manually holding his ship static relative to a moving target and compensating for drift.

Doing it in the fraction of a second window that Fox had to work with was pushing the skill level required up to near impossible, but Fox had that skill, long-honed through training and experience, and his dash of prescience. He targeted his lasers manually, almost without conscious thought, and fired in the same fraction of a second.

Twin bolts of fury swept across the deck, neatly missing the Cerinian at the wheel, but blazing through the grouped Sharpclaw and the Alpha, who practically exploded from the heat transfer. The remaining couple of Sharpclaw were leaderless, and unable to return fire anyway.

He sensed others coming up from below, and diverted his close-up camera downwards. Ascending from the trees below were the Cloudrunners, led by Vexor, Windam and Breese, with the three Protectors on their backs. They were narrowing file to fly between the still active sky-ship rockets.

Fox immediately blasted upwards on his under-jets, if they were coming up over the stern, he'd make sure everyone was looking up and towards the bow. Kicking in forward thrust, he buzzed the masts as he headed forward. He tweaked his course to just catch General Scales' banner, which flew from the tip of the main mast, on the point of one of his lower G-Diffuser units.

The banner ripped away from the mast, and he dragged it forward with him, just as the lead Cloudrunners ascended over the stern. Windam and Breese dropped to the deck, allowing Ema and Krystal to jump off, while Vexor rose above them, Master Ti covering the area with his staff. The two remaining Sharpclaw were looking the other way, and fell before they could even react.

When Fox flew back, the deck was clear, and he could now see that beyond the main wheel a central ramp led down to the main deck, and the rest of the front edeg of the poop was another railing. Master Ti, Ema and Krystal were already over the partition, and standing at the head of the ramp, firing down on the Sharpclaws surging forward to engage them.

The Cloudrunners weren't idle either, unable to fly effectively between the rigging and masts, they carried head sized rocks that they dive bombed the Sharpclaw with from both sides. The Cerinian pilot, who seemed to be some sort of red pig, had picked up a discarded axe and was covering the rail between the main deck and poop deck.

The main group of Sharpclaw were trying to force their way up the ramp, but the trio stood firm. However, a few were trying to scramble up over the rails, to flank them, and the pig, hard as he was working, couldn't cover the entire rail alone. Fox hauled his fighter round, time to hit the deck.

The poop deck might be quite wide, but it wasn't big enough to take an Arwing, and even if it had been, under-jets on a wooden deck? Not wise. But Fox was prepared, he pulled up the auto-pilot command interface, and set up a 'return to last way-point' program, along with a station-keeping program centred on the sky-ship. It helped that the wind was behind them, and the pilot had lashed the wheel before he took up an axe.

As he flew in to hover right behind it, he activated station keeping, disengaged the canopy safety interlocks and opened it. Unstrapping, he sprung up onto his seat and out onto the nose of the Arwing, trusting to his mol-stiction boots to keep him on it. He shut the canopy behind him, and took a leap of faith. Well, faith that he'd cover the half standard metre between the tip of the Arwing and the deck anyway.

The edge of the active G-Diffusion field aided him, reducing his weight, but he would have made it easily anyway. He landed on the poop deck, blaster already out, and put a bolt through a Sharpclaw that was halfway over the rail between main and poop deck.

He caught the welcoming thoughts of the trio, Krystal, Master Ti, even Ema, though hers was, 'About time you got here!'

Her thought had more humour than rancour, so he just thought back lightly, 'Sorry, had to play a game of capture the flag first.' He triggered the second program from his PDA, and heard the Arwing turn and fly away, back to the clearing where the New Dawn was.

None of their comments distracted them from the fight. He stayed back and covered both flanks with his blaster, as the other three fought there way down the ramp, Ema was in the middle, her staff work bold and forceful, while her mind gloried in the righteous kicking of tail of those who thoroughly deserved it. It was clear this was the kind of thing she lived for. It was she who was forcing the massed Sharpclaw back.

Master Ti, on the other hand was careful, precise, and his attacks were those of a old warrior, husbanding his strength and committing no more than necessary to hold his flank. Not that it made his strikes any slower, or hits any less devastating when they went home, as they always did. It also made clear that his protestations of age and infirmity were pro-forma.

Krystal, on the other side was determined, focussed on holding her flank. Her lightning staff work lacked Ema's flare, or Master Ti's care, but it was fast and well performed. But what really gave them the advantage was their telepathy. Fox was a part of it, and he was amazed at how it felt.

They didn't have to look, they knew what each other was doing, and what they intended to do next. There were no shouted commands, possibilities of miscommunication, they fitted together flawlessly. Krystal struck out at a Sharpclaw out of her direct line of vision as Fox spotted it trying to flank her, and Ema widened her sweeps automatically to compensate until Krystal's staff came back into guard.

Master Ti struck low, ducking under a swipe with a mace, and Fox used the gap to blast the Sharpclaw making it back onto his fellows. The pig wasn't hooked in, but Fox could spare enough attention to cover his back and make sure he didn't get side-swiped too. The four empaths formed a bastion that the Sharpclaw couldn't overwhelm.

The Sharpclaws fought, didn't break, didn't run, even as the last few were overwhelmed. Not so much from courage as the fact that without an Alpha, there had been no-one to tell them to stop. And then it was over, there was no-one left to fight. The Cloudrunners landed around the rim of the deck, crying harsh squawks of triumph, and the Protectors joined Fox up on the poop deck as the pig came over.

The only pigs Fox knew of were the inhabitants of Pigsti Prime in the Boareus sector, and the only one he'd known personally had been Pigma Dengar. But even at first glance, you could tell this guy was about as different from that traitor as it was possible to be. Taller, with a steady gaze and small tusks, his crimson colour came not from his skin, but from the matted red fur that covered him. This was more visible then usual as the well made and trimmed yellow sleeveless tunic and pantaloons he wore were ragged and worn, as were his half boots.

"Protectors, thank the Ancients and all the ancestors!" He stopped before them and ducked his head. "Navigator Siu Sui of the Osar Dune, sirs and madams, the ranking officer... only officer left on this tub. We had just about given up hope.. thank you, thank you for our lives."

Master Ti simply smiled and said, "Raise your head, young boar, you gave a pretty good account of yourself. I am Master Protector Ti Li Fei of the Northern Temple, and with me are Protector Ema Raued, and trainees Teraso no Kuristaru, and Fox McCloud. We are only too glad to help."

The one of the other crew-members had arrived, a monkey who apart from his orange fur and knee length tunic, wouldn't have looked out of place on Fortuna. "Navigator! Bosun's hurt, real bad!"

The boar started down the ramp, then looked behind him with an apologetic expression, before continuing on. "Calm down Subayi! Now what happened?"

The monkey continued talking at breakneck pace. "When those scaly sons of beetles all rushed aft, she got us together and we decided to attack them, the ones that were knocked down, at least. You know how she's been with what they did to her eye!

"So we picked up some spikes and went after them. You should have seen Dai Lung! He just picked one up and threw it over the side! They were so busy fighting the Protectors..." he paused and bowed his respect to the four who were coming down after him. "Begging your pardon, masters.. that they didn't realise we were there at first!"

"Dai Lung held them down, the ones that the Cloudrunners knocked down, where did they all come from? this is pretty far south for King Chakan to send a patrol, and the Bosun and I stuck the spikes in... did you know they vanish when they die? Yes, you were fighting them too... we saw that, it was so great! But a couple of the ones in the main group saw us and came rushing back.

"I threw myself into the knees of one as he came for us, and Dai Lung dropped a rock on his head, well he took the helm off first, but the Bosun had one to herself. I didn't see what happened, but she must have hurt it before she went down, it was dragging it's leg, and we double teamed it.

They came to the bow end of the main deck where there were two other crew members, one a large black ox who had only a ragged pair of shorts. He was kneeling beside a green hare who would have been inconspicuous on Corneria, though the bandage over one eye and the ears bound into a top knot with a colourful ribbon would have caused some funny looks. She wore pantaloons too, a top which was really just multiple layers of wide silk ribbon wrapped around her, and slippers with hardened leather toe caps.

She was unconscious, and he was holding a pad of cloth to her upper chest, but the blood soaking the layers of silk and green fur suggested the wound underneath hadn't been completely sealed. Fox was already pulling out his medi-kit. The analyser was waved over her, and reported her condition as critical, big surprise, but not yet irreversible.

Unlike with Arera, his empathic sense could also feel Mizousen's spirit, weak, flickering, but still fighting, and the ox, his concern, for a friend as well as a superior he respected... Pulling out the can of bio-foam, he called out, "Pull that bandage away! It's not sealing the wound and she's lost a lot of blood already!"

Dai Lung looked up at Sui Sui, who looked to Master Ti. Fox was pulling other items from his kit, he slapped a medical monitor chip against her wrist, and it lit up a small holo-image with orange, flashing figures. "Dang it, she's got about a 60 percent chance of survival right now, and it's going down every second! Otherwise she'll be dead inside of two min.. a hundred heartbeats, that Sharpclaw ripped into one of her lungs, and nicked an artery..."

Krystal was already looking around. "You need water, like when you healed my sister? Master, he may be able to..."

Master Ti nodded, "I understand. Let him proceed. His people have remarkable devices, like the sky-ship you saw. His healing kit is one of them."

Fox sprayed the area with bio-foam even as the bandage came away and the blood welled up from three deep slashes under the rabbit's arm. Fortunately it had ripped away most of the cloth too. As with Arera, the material worked it's way into the gashes, sealing them, and gave him chance to use the depiliation spray. He also sealed his hands with glove spray before he placed the trauma pack on the wound, and monitored it via the scanner.

He should really have the analyser do a tissue compatibility analysis as well as a gross anatomical scan (he might not be a doctor, but he'd thoroughly studied the manual), it was currently using Cerinian rabbit defaults, but even with it's advanced nano-probes, breaking down a tissue sample and matching it against the range of drugs would take several minutes, and she didn't have that long.

Krystal came back with a female rat with purple fur and dark overalls, belted at the middle with a tool-belt, and also wearing slippers. They were carrying a bucket between them. "Mizo's hurt...? Huh, what are those metal things?... They make pictures in the air? That's so neat!"

There was a round of introductions and brief explanations, the newcomer was the engineer, Shikake, and the patient, Bosun Mizousen, while the ox was the redoubtable Dai Lung. While the rat was genuinely concerned for her friend, she was almost as interested in the devices Fox had, practically quivering with eagerness to see them.

Master Ti told the Cloudrunners to return to the clearing, and suggested to the navigator they should moor there. Fox had no time for pleasantries the first few moments, but as the filled blood packs were plugged into the trauma unit he sat back on his heels. "It's up to the machines now..."

He looked around, the Protectors were helping the crew with the ship, so he was alone, though the various members of the crew were casting him worried glances. He checked the medi-kit inventory, he had about enough consumables left for one major trauma event, except for a broken bone, he hadn't used any of the splint foam.

Krystal noticed he'd stopped working and came over. "Is she going to be alright?"

Fox slumped back against the bow and pointed to the still orange, though no longer flashing holo-image generated by the coin sized device stuck to the rabbit's wrist.

"She may be, I think I got the trauma pack on in time, but it's still touch and go. I can only do this one more time, then I'm out of stuff for the medi-kit, synthetic blood packs and some of the Fast heal drugs more than anything."

"You did what you could." She sat down beside him. "No-one could have blamed you for saving your precious materials, you said she was near death."

"Not and look at myself in a mirror tomorrow." He glanced at the medical scanner he still held. "C'mon, I paid enough system dollars for you... and you, Miss Rabbit, you were willing to take on a Sharpclaw with a tooth-pick, don't let a little thing like a sucking chest wound beat you! "

Subayi was up in the rigging, doing things with rope, while Dai Lung and Ema were reefing the main sail. Sui Sui was at the wheel, calling down a speaking tube to Shikake and moving levers back and forth, presumably to control the wing-sails, and Master Ti was acting as a lookout, guiding them to the clearing.

But Krystal was focusing on the feeling of Fox's emotions, he was practically willing Mizousen to live. "Come on, there's nothing else you can do here but worry. Or is there?"

Fox sighed and shook his head. "Not for the moment. It's hooked up with all the chemicals it can use, and it can react far faster to any change in her condition. I'll need to finish up with skin spray, like Arera, but until then, But it just feels sort of wrong to leave her here all alone."

She felt a wave of affection for him. "Very well, it's not like either of us have really had a chance to rest since we got up this morning. Sharpclaw, Red-Eyes, jet-bikes and sky battles... well at least it hasn't been boring."

"Yeah, in fact, I've enjoyed it. Crazy, huh?"

"Not at all, it feels good to make a difference, it's what I hoped for when I decided to become a Protector." She leaned up against him. "You too, I can feel it. You were a Protector, long before you ever came to Cerinia."

Too tired to protest, he let himself rest against her. It was immensely comfortable, not just physically, but her very presence was soothing. "I never really thought about it that way. It's just been what I always did."

"Well you've done it again. None of this would have been possible without you. And I just wanted to say, thank you."

"For what? As you said, it's what I wanted to do." He shifted his head to look at her.

She looked back at him, their muzzles almost touching, close enough they could feel the warmth of each others breath. "For my family, accepting me as I am, for teaching me how to be what I most want to be, for... well, for being you."

"I should be the one thanking you. I couldn't have done any of it without you flying my wing, standing there beside me, and giving me support, like right now. Whatever else, we make a great team." In that moment of rapport, she could sense his feelings more deeply than usual, could feel the depth of his gratitude, and something more, despite his earlier protestations.

She gazed deep into his eyes, warm, accepting. "Fox, I..."

The medical scanner gave a reassuring chuckle, and the legends on the wrist tell-tale holo-window turned green. Fox hesitated for a moment, then turned away, breaking the contact.

"Sorry, Krystal, the treatment just completed." He turned to Mizousen and pulled the can of spray-skin from the medical kit. She sighed, frustrated, but moved around to see how she could help.

He'd just finished removing the trauma pack and sealing the wound when Sui Sui came over, trailed by Subayi. The monkey spoke first. "Did the Bosun live? is she going to make it? Can we do anything to help? Sorry, I should have used your titles Protector or trainee Protectors, though that doesn't sound as good... "

Fox looked up from where he was spraying down the surgical head of the trauma pack with antiseptic. "It's fine, we don't need fancy titles. In short, yes, probably and no. The, uh, healing potions in her body will keep her asleep until tomorrow, and she's going to have to take it easy for a couple of weeks, even Fast Heal can only do so much."

He thought for a moment, as he packed away his medical kit and peeled the surgical gloves off his hands. "If there's a bed or something, we can move her there."

Sui Sui spoke. "There's a hammock set up in the engine room, Protector McCloud. I think Subayi asked everything I wanted to. I must thank you again, for your help, and for saving Bosun Mizousen's life."

"Thanks for giving me the chance. But rescuing you was a team effort. Krystal should get as much credit, and so should the other Protectors and the Cloudrunners."

Fox scooped up Mizousen gently. Krystal felt slightly jealous of the rabbit, then Fox glanced at her, his mind showing he thought she was being silly. Her own sense of humour kicked in, while she might like the idea of being carried in Fox's arms, she'd also like to be conscious for it.

Sui Sui was unaware of their mental exchange. "Of course, I didn't mean to imply otherwise."

Fox grinned and shook his head. "No problem, I'm just glad we could help."

They'd crossed the main deck and into an open doorway on one side, a ramp led down and round, onto a central ramp which led down into the main cargo hold of the ship. At the bottom, Sui Sui turned round and pulled a lever, and the ramp lifted up, sealing entryway and allowing access to doors behind it.

As they entered the engine room, Krystal sighed. Maybe this evening, after everything was settled she'd finally have a chance to talk to him, the way she'd intended first thing that morning. It seemed every time they got a quiet moment, something interrupted them. But then she allowed herself a small smile.

She might have been interrupted, but this time... this time, he hadn't shied away.

**Authors Notes:** Okay, I think this is a good place to stop. I hope people enjoyed this. If you think that General Scales is going to need another flagship, you're right. And Sui Sui is a bad pun, in multiple ways if you know your Miyazaki films.

That bloody flying ship in Star Fox Adventures always gave me an acute pain. Not because it's a flying ship, flying ships are awesome, but because it appears from no-where, with no justification, and is never seen again. It's a big lipped alligator moment, and Scales is the big lipped alligator in question.

Well, these last few chapters have hopefully gone some way to explaining it, and I've got some more exposition to cram in as we go to where I originally intended, the capital of the Cloudrunner kingdom. That's the 'Fox gets Flashy' episode I talked about. I had intended on going right there, then I made the mistake of watching 'Treasure Planet', and decided I hadn't had a big enough action fix.

Once again, I'm probably handling the romance clumsily, but then I've already said I'm not much cop at it. But things are developing, and the next chapter should see some real advancement. I need to take a rest, and switch to Training Tails, but I'll be back.


	15. Deleted Scene from chapter 3 and Apology

**Authors Notes: **While I get to work on the next chapter of this story, here's a scene from earlier which I had to remove because I felt it didn't add to the plot. It covers between Fox waking up after the Gate jump and descending onto Cerinia. It's sort of a study of how you'd search for a planet around an unknown sun. It also fills in the past experience with Miyu story that I eventually moved to chapter 1.

It's also a promise to all the loyal fans of this story that I haven't forgotten them. I will be continuing this story now that I have cleared my out-standing Training Tails episodes. I apologise for the long delay, but I work a full time job, and have a life beyond writing stories, amazing as it would seem. I will be replying to all the outstanding reviews people have sent me, since some didn't provide me with a PM, so I needed a chapter so I could reply in the reviews section.

**Chapter 3 - Deleted scene…**

Fox groaned, and regretted it. The noise grated across his eardrums like a rusty file, causing his one big headache to spontaneously launch lots of little ones that spread out and took over his whole body. Opening his eyes was another big mistake, as nomadic hordes of invading photons seared their way down his optic nerve. It felt like a giant had tried to unscrew the top of his skull, and right now he wished they'd succeeded, since who would want to keep anything that hurt this much.

With a massive effort, he reached over and popped one of the side panels, extracting a flat, fore-arm long case with an bandaged paw symbol in relief, a Cornerian Army field medi-kit. Ever since Sauria, he'd made sure his fighter was fully fitted out for more than just flying. A spray-hypo and ampoule of painkiller were slotted together with painful effort, and the whole applied to his neck.

A double dose was dangerous, but so was a space fighter with an incapacitated pilot, so he squeezed the trigger twice. It worked fast, and within ten seconds, the pain was dying and he felt slightly more vulpine. As he slotted the kit away, and took a sip from a drinking tube, he automatically scanned over the readouts, and searched the sky.

The sun showed a digit width disk off to his right, but it couldn't be Solar. Beta might be out of his field of view, but at least one of the three great nebulae should be visible. Besides, his navigation system hadn't realigned on the beacons that were scattered across the Lylat system. At least there was one good piece of news, whatever had happened had been too much for the disabler, since this damage control system was already reloading his fighter's processors with all their programs.

He did a pigeon tumble just to make sure, pushing the stick forward and letting the drifting craft pitch through 360 degrees. Nothing visible to the naked eye except the naked stars, visible due to the polarising effect of the canopy. The shields had recovered some strength from the power plant, but he quickly reduced them to navigation level. He'd need to conserve power, if he was to have a chance to survive.

His sensors showed no vessels within their full range, no beacons or signals impinged on his e-warfare system. Either there was no-one out there, or their communications systems didn't register on Lylatian equipment. He took stock, he had about 30 % reactor mass, enough for a single COR of point to point flight, though he could eke it out with ballistic trajectories. His life support was on-line and could supply him with air for a week, though it would start to get nasty in there after a couple of days.

Water was reclaimed from the recycled air, and there was a survival pack with a weeks F-rations behind his seat, so he wasn't in any immediate danger, but long term, his only hope was to box this sun and find a habitable planet. The chances of a random jump into interstellar space putting him near enough a sun to show a visible disk made winning the Cornerian Planetary Lottery look likely by comparison, so hoping for a planet was pushing it, but he had no choice.

"Well, I wanted a challenge…"

He was in a star fighter, not a survey ship, so he didn't have any of the specialised tools they regularly used to map out a new planetary system. So he improvised. Fox set to work resetting the navigation system to inertial reference, zeroed on a line between his current position and the sun, and got to work programming a route for the auto-pilot. He might not be Slippy, but he'd trained hard in learning the capabilities of his Arwing, and now it was paying off.

The command icons, each a predefined set of instructions, was drawn into place and linked into the chart on the holo-interface. Parameters were set by a keyboard pop-up. The ship would do a sequence of point to point transitions, drawing out an octahedron around the sun. His guess was from it's size and apparent intensity, he was roughly within it's life-zone, the region where habitable planets could be found. An F type like Solar, or as this one appeared to be, had a wide one, increasing the chances.

His ship's cameras would collect data and the computer would look for any objects that moved, or better yet started to show a shape, a disk or crescent. Anything habitable should show a shape up to 30 million kilo-units away, and be visible as a 'moving star' at better than a COR. With long un-powered stretches to conserve reactor mass for manoeuvring, the path would take days, but it wasn't as if he had anything better to do.

Fox double checked his work, and saw that it was good. He triggered 'execute', and settled down for a long wait, pulling up a detective novel from storage, shading the cockpit by turning up the polarisation, and putting on 'Classical Howls' by Vulpine Youth. Fortunately, his entertainment files hadn't been wiped by damage control for their memory space.

The result was anti-climatic. He'd barely gotten to the first grizzly murder when the search system chimed. He sat up, ears pricked, and checked for himself. There it was, a tiny but visible half moon haloed by his targeting system. It might well have been visible from his start position, but only as a bright star, and with his limited equipment…

He adjusted course to head for it, ballistic to save power for if it turned out to be a dud, but his sixth sense, that intuition that had given him that edge as a fighter pilot, was pricking, saying this is the one. Both Peppy and his father had told him to trust his instincts, and they were telling him, this was where he needed to go. He altered the navigation program accelerate, using up some of the reactor mass earmarked for the last leg of his survey course.

Even so, it took several hours to travel the tenth of a COR. His sensors wouldn't pick it up until he was within a fifty thousand kilo-units, being not designed for long range survey, but he spent the time setting them up to extract as much info as possible when they could. As it swelled to greater than moon sized, the returns started coming in. He matched vector automatically (he'd been flying down from system zenith, according to the orbital track), and it definitely was the right size and rotation rate for a habitable world.

Before Krystal, there had been one other who'd gotten inside the shell he'd. Miyu Miyabi had been a tomboyish, easy going lynx, who with her friend, Fay Le Fleu had been in the same class as Fox and Slippy at the Corneria Flight Academy. When she'd run into trouble with her first year Combat Strategy lessons, she'd asked Fox to tutor her, since his dedication to becoming the best space fighter pilot in the system had led to him having the highest marks, and zero social life.

It had started out as a purely academic relationship, but slowly, she'd gotten the overly focussed, up-tight young fox to open up. With Fay and Slippy, they'd formed their own little social group, often going out on double dates. By the middle of the second year, he was considering more than just a social relationship, but before it could go anywhere, Peppy had come to him with news of his fathers death.

He'd resigned from Flight school to take over the Great Fox and learn from Peppy, and train to eventually go after Andross. Slippy had loyally followed him, despite Fox's suggestions that he shouldn't damage his own career out of friendship. Miyu and Fay, however, had too much at stake. They stayed the course and graduated with honours.

They'd kept in touch, and as the fox flight leader made a name for the new Star Fox team, it became more and more likely that the two girls would see out their first term of duty, and then resign and come to work for Star Fox.


	16. Sail Plans

**Mission 15 – Sail plans.**

As Fox entered the engine room, he had to avoid a narrow floor to ceiling panel that blocked off the centre line of the room. Shikake, the rat engineer was already inside, and making something fast on the bulkhead they'd just come through. It was lined with stacked rows of cubby holes with various pieces of equipment and spares inside.

It was broken only by the doorway they'd entered by, and a bench that was fitted between two columns of cubby-holes. There were drawers under it, and rows of tools, neatly hung on rows of pegs above. A couple of fixed, sealed lanterns with glass roofs shone light upwards to be reflected down onto the work area by adjustable mirrors.

However, work would clearly have to wait, as a hammock was strung between two of the pegs. He was betting this was Shikake's berth, and she probably lived down here as well as worked here. He glanced at the rat, and got a nod, so he carefully laid up the green rabbit in his arms into the hammock.

"Will she be alright?" Shikake asked.

Fox glanced at the tell-tale on Mizousen's wrist, which still matched her fur. "I'm not promising anything, the damage was nasty, but it looks like I caught it in time. As long as that indicator shows green, and doesn't start beeping, she's safe."

"I'll watch her. She's my best friend." The rat looked straight at him, and he could feel her gratitude. "Thank you for saving her. Um... what's a beep?"

"Like this..." Fox triggered the test cycle on the tell-tale, causing it to run through it's states and beep loudly when the floating 'Test sequence' lettering turned red. He made sure that the hand pad sized holo-image had returned to the reassuring green figures, then turned around to get a good look at the rest of the engine room for the first time.

The narrow panel near the door had stopped him from stepping into a long well that ran down the centre of the entire length of the room. The panel had coloured flaps on, moved by ropes that stretched into the ceiling, to the main tiller wheel from the position. There had been a number of levers on either side of the steering column, but Fox hadn't thought much about where they led.

In the well a square shaft turned continuously. Gears were spaced along the line of it, and secondary shafts with their own gears could be slid along by shoulder high levers, engaging and disengaging with the main shaft as needed. From the position, the main shaft probably drove the propeller at the back somehow... though there would almost have to be a way to disengage it.

The secondary shafts probably powered the wing-sails, changed the position of the adjustable levitation crystals and drove the winching gear. What could be done by a hand crank on the New Dawn would obviously need power on a ship this size, what had Sui Sui called it, the Osar Dune? It also explained the small operating crew size, he doubted most of the on-board Sharpclaw were useful for more than hitting things.

The prime mover was what had to be a steam engine, though it was nothing like he'd imagined. His vague mental image had involved some giant contraption of dark iron and steel, with a glowing firebox and steam belching from various places. The only thing that was glowing on this machine were the rows of runes on an array of flasks made of some sort of ceramic all tied together by brass piping. Further back, an array of a dozen brass and ceramic pistons in a V shaped arrangement pumped up and down, clearly leading to whatever transmission drove the main shaft.

An upper set glowed with blue runes similar to the Ice Spray one on a staff, while the lower array used one similar to Fire Blast. Heat engines of any kind were as obsolete in the Lylat system as flint knapping, but he understood the basics. It must be some closed cycle, as there was no venting, heating the water in the lower chambers, running it through the pistons, and collecting the water in the upper chambers to be chilled and reused.

If he remembered his Academy lectures on thermodynamics, the bigger the temperature differential, the more efficient the engine. That meant the seals and ceramic vessels, or whatever they were, must be under great pressure. Once again it showed that these guys might not have the Lylatian tech tree, but their home-grown ideas weren't too shabby.

Shikake caught him admiring it, and said with pardonable pride. "She's a beauty, isn't she? Even with these green skin guys stomping around, I've managed to keep her purring as sweet as a tora-jin with a fresh kill. No offence to Protector... you know the green tiger."

"I get the idea." Fox grinned, then said. "I figured you'd use coal, or wood?"

"Not on a sky-ship! Well, not for the last century, at least. Ever since the Protectors released the rune arrays to create heating and cooling chambers, they're pretty much universal. We drive the ship the same way we lift it, with magic. Coal takes up cargo space and weight, and the fire risk involved..."

"I can see that." Fox had also noticed metal bracing against the side walls, and a couple of tanks, as well as a control panel, looked to be the flight engineers console from a medium range shuttle-craft.

"I'm betting the Sharpclaw put _that_ in, or rather a 'servo-mech', a machine, since I have difficulty believing most of them could do more than hit it with an axe." He used the Lylatian word, and called up an image of the thing using his holo-imager, a hovering metal barrel, much like the ones he'd found dotted all over Sauria, but with it's multiple arms extended. Shikake was wide-eyed at the image, but shook her head.

"I didn't see it installed. When we were captured, they kept most of us below decks. Captain Gaisan was the one who guided us to their base, they had a thing like a compass that showed a glowing arrow, but it pointed to their place. It was a pyramid like this one, but..." Shikake sighed. "...he never had a chance to pass on where it was. We were taken off the ship and held in the pyramid for several days, and when we were brought back on board, these had been added, and the weird monster head and fire-ball casting towers."

She indicated the control panel. "It controls the rocket engines, the ones they added." The word 'rocket' wasn't part of Fox's vocabulary, and sounded Nihongo rather than Ancient, but the mental image made the context clear.

"They're like flame-powder rockets, but they don't burn out." The rat shook her head. "I'd love to figure out how they do it, but I was never allowed to touch the runes, let alone figure out what they do. There was always a green guy, uh, Sharpclaw, good name that, standing over it, until he left when you guys attacked."

"Maybe I can figure it out, it's a lot like the ones I've used." Fox gave one last glance at the resting rabbit, and moved around to look it over. The controls were a flat panel touch screen, not even holo-imaging, robust, simple and easy to make. The only reason Andross had managed to build such a huge army and navy was by channelling obsolete production machinery to Venom from supporters on Fortuna and MacBeth. It was one of the reasons his regular fighters were so inferior to an Arwing.

The control scheme was ridiculously simplified, a little more than two bars with levels you could drag up or down by touching a finger, or a claw to. He shut down the engines, and restored the default control panel, regular Lylatian script. It confirmed what he'd suspected, they were twin dark-matter engines off a medium shuttle, the sort Andross had built hundreds of as troop transports, and the tanks were from the same source, and were full of dark matter.

There was a whistle from a tube on the flap panel, and Shikake picked it up. She listened to it, then spoke into it. "The red kitsune Protector turned them off, he says he can work them."

Fox picked up the edges of her public thoughts and replied. "Tell the Navigator he can have the engines back on, though I figure he'll be over the New Dawn any second, but I need to give you a quick lesson in how to handle them. Dark-matter drives are generally simple to control, but you need to know a few things. The fuel for one thing, dark-matter can be unfriendly if you don't know how to handle it."

"Great! I'd love to know how it works!" The rat was once again practically bouncing with excitement. Fox smirked, thinking that if this girl had met Slippy, Amanda might have been out of luck.

Krystal had been leaning against the back wall, not interfering, but now she spoke. "It'll have to wait, we're over the clearing..."

Fox cast his empathic sense out and got clear reads from the other Protectors and to a lesser extent the crew that they were there. At the same time there was another whistle from the voice tube, and after listening, Shikake replied 'All stop, prepare for descent and mooring, aye.'

Suddenly, she was all business. She pulled on some levers, including one big one at the back which disengaged a major gear train, and some others which engaged secondary shafts. 'Winding up the wing sails' Fox thought. Shikake looked over at them, but both of them caught the edge of her public thoughts, acutely uncomfortable ones about how she could politely ask two honest to gosh Protectors to leave and let her do her job.

"We'll go and help up on deck." Krystal said for both of them.

"Thank very much!" The rat engineer turned back to her task, but called over her shoulder. "I really do want to know about the rockets, but it's going to have to wait."

Mooring the larger ship next to the smaller without a proper dock required all the hands, and wings they could put on it, but soon the ship was landed. As it was, Fox had to expend a dozen shots to cut down trees to enlarge the clearing, with Cloudrunners guiding the trees away from the ships, and the place was still crowded.

With the extra help and supplies from the Osar Dune, the New Dawn was quickly restored to full manoeuvrability. Fortunately, the decks of the two ships were pretty much level, the greater draught of the Osar Dune's hull made up for by the fact that it didn't have a fin style keel like the New Dawn. Meanwhile, the able Cloudrunners were hunting for supplies. The dragon head was removed, as were the rear turrets, but those were laid in the hold as they had a lot of valuable metal.

With the fore-deck cleared, Fox, with Shikake and Krystal's help rigged a cradle there, and moved his Arwing onto it, using maximum G-diffusion, minimum under-jets and pads of soaked matting backed by fireproof hide from the dragon head, to protect the decking. Fox mentally quipped to Krystal that they barely needed any water, as the sight of the trim space fighter had the rat engineer drooling over it.

The Cloudrunner semi-invalids were also moved to the Osar Dune, along with the game and supplies they'd collected, and the small convoy set out back to the ruined temple, at Fox's suggestion. Ema was one of the ones who thought he was crazy when he raised the idea. "You want us to go back to where we nearly got our tails shot off?"

"For tonight, yes. If there are any heavy weapons left in working order, my Arwing's sensors should spot them long before we get in range. One overflight and they won't be a problem. They may be a threat to a wooden hulled sky-ship, but to an Arwing, they'll be rather dull target practice."

He frowned. "As for any remaining Sharpclaw, I hope they're there. We can finish clearing them up. We did alright with three staffs, four plus some Cloudrunners to drop rocks should be enough to break any formation in the open, and if they're crazy enough to face us in the corridors..."

His mental image of the mincing he and Krystal gave them last night needed no further explanation.

Ema grinned fiercely. "On second thoughts, I'm starting to like this idea."

"It seems workable." Master Ti had posed the question, but waited for the discussion to end before he commented. "Vexor, would your people be willing to help some more?"

"I would be glad to, and so will every able-bodied Cloudrunner. But I don't think any of us would want to take shelter in there. Too many bad memories."

Fox popped up a battle-recorder image from that morning, as they'd made their way along the top of the wall. "I wouldn't worry, the section you were in is full of rubble."

Sui Sui goggled a bit at the projected image, but like most of the people Fox had met here, seemed to accept it, rather than freaking out.

"But then... ah, the end towers are intact." Master Ti exclaimed, picking up the thought from Fox.

Fox nodded. "Yeah, I figured either of those towers has more room than the boats, plus they can be secured by those staff controlled doors. We slept there together last night. The one we were in even has a hot spring."

He couldn't help a partial memory of what had happened down there, though he quickly suppressed it with thoughts of navigating from Corneria to Katina. Krystal blushed slightly as she was closer to his thoughts than the other two.

Ema smirked. "Slept there together?"

It was Krystal that nudged the tigeress in the side. "Yes, and that's all we did! Fox was a perfect gentleman, and we were too tired to think of anything else, I mean..."

Fox chuckled, mostly from seeing Krystal get teased rather than teasing. "Krystal, I don't think there's anything you can say that won't make that sound worse. It's no-body else's business, and we're talking tactics, not relationships. So lets get back to cases. Any other questions?"

"Is there a good mooring place for the ships?" asked Sui Sui.

"You saw the wall we were walking on between the tower and the main pyramid. The top was high enough for the New Dawn to bring it's deck level, so the Osar Dune shouldn't have problems." Fox replayed the footage.

When they arrived, it turned out the preparations had proved unnecessary. The place had clearly been stripped. Despite a thorough search, there were no Sharpclaw to be found, nor jet-bikes or other equipment in usable condition. The crew still brought several wrecked ones on board, purely for the metal. Fox wasn't sure they'd be able to work the alloys, but Cerinian tech had thrown him surprises before.

Getting settled in took them to evening, and a re-telling of Fox's back story, as well as some edited highlights of their more recent adventure, complete with battle-recorder footage.

There was something of a party atmosphere, while the food wasn't exactly a feast, there were stories and discussions, one of which was the delayed talk about the thruster engines on the Osar Dune. Fox, Krystal, Shikake and Sui Sui went back out to the Osar Dune, and Fox did his show and tell. The engine room was lit by the lanterns, the runes of the steam engine were dark, but the glow of the control panel was still there.

Fox moved over to one of the tanks. "Engineer Shikake, you were right about those being like rockets, though they're acting as 'jets'." He used the Ancient word for a jet of water, then clarified. "I saw from the control panel, they're drawing in air and heating it, rather than relying purely on the fuel. It's a way to stretch your supply."

"Supply of what?" Shikake asked. "This 'dark-matter' you spoke of? Where is it?"

"Right here." Fox tapped a tank.

"But... Those rockets have been going for weeks! There's no way those tanks could supply them for so long!" Fox could feel her disbelief.

"Well the liquid in here is far more volatile than anything you're likely to have seen, but you're right." He sighed. "It's similar to the synthetic fuel you saw those jet-bikes use in my battle recording, the stuff that blew up half the pyramid. That's why you have to be so darned careful with it. But in this case, the liquid is only a 'support matrix', a container for the actual dark-matter. That stuff is far more powerful, but far safer."

"That doesn't make sense." Krystal said, frowning.

"How to put it... okay, if my numbers are right, one gram of dark-matter releases as much energy as 10 million tons of coal, or any of the fuels you're likely to know about." He realised he'd fallen back on Lylatian terminology and quickly converted it to more recently learned measures. "A couple of monme versus millions of koen of coal. My Arwing has a tank about a third the size of these ones and it can fly half way across a star system."

Shikake threw a nervous glance at the tanks with the symbol of a circle of black dots around a larger white core circle on, and she wasn't the only one.

Fox grinned. "The reason it's safe is that the energy can only be released under certain conditions. A dark-matter reactor, the heart of any engine, creates a very small volume where the conditions are right. Without that, it's inert, safe, so the reaction can't spread to the rest of the fuel. So you only have to worry about the chemical explosion."

"But why not just have the dark-matter on it's own?" Shikake asked.

Fox shook his head. "On it's own it decays, becomes unusable a few days after it's made. I'm not going to go into details, because I don't understand them myself that well, but that stuff is the best stabilising agent we've been able to make. Unfortunately, it's also volatile. So I wouldn't go messing around with it."

Shikake asked the obvious. "So how much do we have? With the engines going we were able to fly straight into the strongest wind."

"At the rate you were using it, enough for maybe three months of continuous use. You were barely clearing the throats of your motors at that power setting. I'd beg a few standard litres for my Arwing, if I can figure a way to do the transfer safely."

"So how do we get more?" asked Sui Sui.

"In short, you don't." Fox replied, simply. "Unless you can build a raft on the surface of a sun, and much as I respect your people's abilities, I think that's a bit beyond you. A sun tap is the only realistic way of getting the kind of energy densities needed to make it."

"You're saying your people can?" Krystal said, awed.

"Hang on..." Fox triggered his holo-projector, and displayed a view from his Arwing, first person rather than a god's eye view. He'd prepared it before hand. The bottom half of the image was a sea of fire, slow moving, but with the feeling of speed at great distance.

The only thing breaking the view to the horizon was a massive construction, black, with endless rows of spires reaching up. Some sort of construct also reached down underneath, but this was a blazing spear, visible even against the solar surface. He could sense the wonder of his viewers, as they saw something no Cerinian had ever seen.

"Helios 12. One of the stations over Solar, our sun. No people on board, at least not normally. To give you an idea of scale, it's 50... about 12 and a half ri square. Each of those towers is over a quarter of a ri high."

A small speck rose from between the towers as they watched, at first only visible because it was highlighted by a targeting caret, and the viewpoint approached until they could see a squat, blocky ship, worn Lylatian lettering along it's flank, the legend 'Solar Power Consortium', and a paw grasping a sunburst. Fox's Arwing fell into formation with it as it lifted away from the platform.

Since it was seen from the Arwing camera, it was hard to get a sense of scale, until they realised that the hatch on the side had to be a door for crew. Then it became clear that the ship was about four times as long as the Osar Dawn.

"A tanker full of dark-matter is valuable. So escorting tankers out to orbiting processing stations where the dark-matter could be mixed with the stabiliser was one of my bread and butter jobs."

Fox wrinkled his muzzle. "Not one of my favourites. Even the best shields start to decay under those kind of conditions, so I get in there, rendezvous and get my tail out as fast as I can. Fighting in those conditions is even worse."

The images ended. Shikake recovered first. "Your people really can build something like that? It seems impossible!"

Fox shook his head. "Not impossible, just very big, and really expensive. But they're designed to last several decades, and they'll be making dark-matter the whole time."

Fox went on to show Shikake and Sui Sui how to work the controls, with Krystal an interested spectator and part time translator. He limited the maximum thrust, though it was set higher than the original, as if those engines went full out, they could probably push a ship this mass at 30 to 40 gravities, for the fraction of a second before they ripped themselves free, and tore the ship apart at the same time.

Job done, the group retired to the tower, except for Shikake, who bedded down beside Mizousen, to watch her during the night.

The next morning, there was a council of not-exactly war. The Protectors were there, Vexor and Zephair for the Cloudrunners, and Sui Sui and Shikake for the crew of the Osar Dune.

"The problem before us is simple." Master Ti laid out. "The knowledge we now have, of these Sharpclaw and their abilities, it must be taken to the Council at the Central Temple as fast as possible. But we must also repatriate your people, Vexor, and maybe..."

"Yes Master Ti?" Vexor prompted.

"I dislike the idea of using your misfortunes, but it might be the very thing to allow us to make an embassy to the Cloudrunner king from the Protectors. If there are other strongholds of these creatures, your people would aid immensely in tracking them down. I have no doubt that the Protectors will have every ship they can muster searching, but there is a question as to how many there will be. If ever there was a threat to both our peoples, it is these creatures."

"If it helps put paid to those scaly sons of carrion beetles, use our troubles as much as you want!" Vexor almost squawked. "You may not find it easy though, my flight's village is on the edges of the kingdom. We are more used to ground-walkers than most of our higher flying bretheren."

"Well we can only try." Master Ti looked over to Sui Sui. "On that note, who owns the Osar Dawn?"

"Nihon Aero-shipping Corporation. At least they did." the crimson pig shrugged. "They must consider us lost by now."

"Well they still do, as far as the Protectors are concerned. Would you be willing to consider a charter? Fox has explained to me your ship's unusual mobility, and the fact that it is the only source of fuel for his own craft. I am sure the Protectors would be willing to consider hiring it for at least a season."

"I hadn't... I guess we're still recovering from realising we're still alive. We don't have a Captain, or a full crew... But I'm sure we could square it with home office. Yes! we'll do do it, if we can. Though I'd feel better if we had someone aboard with a Master's certificate, and this far west that's going to be a trick. I can do the work, but I don't have the paperwork to back it up."

"I'm sure we can arrange something." Master Ti smiled. "Having you to transport the Cloudrunners where they need to go will allow me to send Emma and Krystal off in the New Dawn to deliver the messages to the nearest heliograph outpost. Then we can hopefully move on to Stratos City, to visit the King, myself as the most senior Protector here, and Fox because he should stay near his sky-ship."

"Actually..." Fox spoke up. "I could improve on that. A point to point on a planetary surface in my Arwing should take... well less time than this meeting. If I have some idea of where to go, I could take your messages right there. Plus, I do know about the Sharpclaw, and... well, the faster they get the information, and confirmation of what's happening, the better."

'Are you going to tell them everything you told me?' Krystal thought. While you couldn't project a thought, Fox was aware enough of her emotional state that when she thought it, he knew she wanted to say something to him, and 'tuned in' to catch it.

There were identical querying thoughts from both other Protectors, since it was impossible to 'tight-beam' the thought. Ema even seemed about to ask out loud.

Fox didn't need to look at any of them to forestall it, and reply quickly. 'I think I'll have to. Whether they believe me or not is another matter. Dang it! I'm still not sure _I_ believe me, no matter how certain I feel. I will fill Master Ti and Ema in as soon as we finish up here.'

Out loud he said, "All I need is a set of directions. Even if they keep me a couple of days, I should still be back in time for the big meeting with the king. Would that work better?"

Master Ti nodded his agreement, his mind still questioning Fox's unspoken words, though not prying. "However, we have strayed off the route I know. Even using land-marks, the path to Nihon is not straight. Maybe Navigator Sui Sui has something to offer."

"The problem is, I have no directions to give you." Sui Sui frowned, baring his tusks slightly. "This area is as new to me as any of you. I'd hoped to follow the western edge of the Cloudrunners, until we spotted a mining camp or something. That would give me my bearings."

"Maybe I can help there too." Fox triggered his floating holo-projector. A few seconds work grabbing and opening icons, and he had the map globe of Cerinia centred in the screen, tool icons haloing it. He opened and flattened out a rectangle which covered the lower half of the continent, though details beyond major land shapes was fuzzy. A touch of a tool icon and a point glowed near the bottom of the central mountain range.

"We're here, somewhere, at this scale the dot covers half a ri. I should be able to enhance it a bit, I had my Arwing recording images the whole time it's been orbiting. You have multiple images of a single area, and some good software, you can squeeze more detail out of it than you'd think possible." As he talked, he worked with the tools, and the lower two thirds of the image appeared to sharpen, and more detail became visible.

"That's the Hei-yoo river!" exclaimed Shikake, pointing to a bent line on the lower left that joined with the sea in a branching series of lines. "Which means that must be Nanidesu Province. This is so cool! It's so detailed!"

Fox was still surprised that a culture that had steam engines didn't have geographical maps. The ones he'd seen showed relationships of landmarks, way-points for sky-ships, and were more a matter of art than accuracy.

"I see, yes... I've followed that river and seen that bend for myself as we flew over it. Truly amazing." Sui Sui exclaimed.

Fox tweaked some more controls. "Now comes the clever bit. Half the time it was over-flying at night,and while it did, it looked for hot spots and light sources."

A set of dots of different sizes appeared on the map. "I don't promise to have gotten every village, not with this gear, but anything from a small town on up should be there. Hopefully one of you can tell me which of these is Nihon."

Sui Sui frowned,examining the map closely. "I think... that one, yes it's on the river... if I could see it in more detail, I could be sure."

Fox played with the icons some more and zoomed in. Even with the best computer enhancement and interpolation software, there were limits to what you could get out of a basic optical image. "That's the best I can do."

The crimson pig made an affirmative sound. "It is more than enough. That's Nihon. If I remember correctly, the Ancient Temple is about three ri to the north west."

"Great! Better start writing those reports, cause it looks like I'm going on a trip!"

"But how will you find your way back?" asked Krystal.

"I'll leave my beacon on the Osar Dune, in fact if I leave my second PDA with Master Ti, I may even be able to rig a relay through the beacon and my Arwing so we can stay in touch."

Ema grinned. "And while Master Ti is writing up our adventures, I'll teach you the heliograph codes to identify yourself as a Protector courier and ask for landing permission. Otherwise you're likely to have a hotter reception than you hoped for!"

**Authors Notes:** See, I said I wasn't abandoning this! However, I've done something I normally wouldn't do, publishing a single chapter rather than an arc of two or three which covers a sub-plot. I felt it more important to show everyone that I'm still working on this.

I know it's more world building than action, and I expect the next chapter to be much the same, but with any luck the chapter after that will be a doozy.


End file.
